Category: Uncategorized

During our final visit to the National Archives, I was only able to find four out of the eleven files that I was hoping to find. Two files had no relevancy to our topic, however, and the other two files were from the first box I was given on our first trip to the archives. I wanted to take better notes and that box was filled with good cases of people inflicted with a disease or other limitations which usually led to deportation. Since our group had divided presentation duties, I had a better focus on what I needed to look for in the files I was able to find.

For the presentation, I am in charge of the deportation of immigrants and the reasons for their deportation. One case I found was that of Guadalupe Garcia and her children [1]. They were trying to enter the country through El Paso to join her husband and their father who had a stable job and a home for them to live. Inspectors and doctors found out that Guadalupe had a tumor in her thyroid gland, which caused her problems to earn a living. Along with the tumor, Guadalupe was illiterate, and inspectors excluded her because she would become an LPC. Her children were also excluded since they would have become public charges even though the father could have provided for all of them. I did further research through ancestry and found her papers that were filled to exit Mexico, however, the entire document is in Spanish. Only some information was understood, such as the doctor who inspected Mrs. Garcia, which just so happened to have been Dr. Hume, which other people in my group have previously mentioned in their blog posts.

Another case I saw was that of Clemencia Arreola [2]. During questioning, inspectors found out she had lied about her age. She told inspectors she was fifty-one, but in reality, she was forty. She was entering the country to join her son who lived in the United States with his wife, a brother, and two sisters, who were all dependants on him. Her son made $2 a day. Clemencia had a daughter back in Mexico she could easily live with, if not allowed to enter the country. She ended up excluded from the United States for being illiterate and due to the possibility of her becoming an LPC.

[1] File 54,671-005, accession E9, Subject Correspondence, 1906-1932, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85 (National Archives, Washington, DC)

[2] File 54,671-012, accession E9, Subject Correspondence, 1906-1932, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85 (National Archives, Washington, DC)

Of all of the files I viewed this latest trip to the National Archives, I found only one that related to South Asian immigration. The file is a table of all of the number of immigrants admitted into the country from each geographic region in relation to the quota established in the 1924 National Origins Quota Act. The file contains multiple copies of the tables for 1931 and 1932 along with a table recording the number of immigrants and emigrants each year after 1921. The 1931 table records the nation of origin, the quota for that nation, and the number of immigrants admitted per fiscal year; the 1932 table includes all the above in addition to the number of immigrants admitted per the calendar year. The file also includes a few copies of the 1931 and 1932 tables that have handwriting. One copy of the 1932 table has the handwritten inclusion of the number of immigrants admitted in February 1932, one copy of the 1932 table has an unspecified column added, and a copy of the 1931 table includes a column tallying the number of immigrants admitted per the calendar year. Unfortunately, the documents do not break down the division of which immigrants came from which port of entry nor in which office this table was compiled, but it can be assumed that the table was made in the central D.C. office based on the context of the document. These documents are interesting because they show for neither 1931 nor 1932 did Indian immigration hit the quota limit of 100.^[1] The records also show the effect of the National Origins Quota Act as well as the Great Depression. Interestingly, in the document recording immigration numbers pre-1930, South Asians were not separated from Asians in general, indicating that there was a change in how the categories divided.

---

^[1]File 55,775-593, Subject and Policy Files, 1893-1957, Records of Immigration and Naturalization Services, RG 85 (National Archives, Washington, DC).

Sean Thomas

On Friday November 15, we took our last class visit to the National Archives. Sadly however, even though we were the most prepared for this trip, it turned out to be the least productive. However, I was able to find four case files that are useful to our group, though three of them were rather plain, and contained no real information we hadn’t gotten from previous files. One file that was given to me, however, was on Dr. Issac Rivera, a Mexican citizen who wished to temporarily enter the United States to get supplies for his doctor’s office in Mexico, and to have a tonsillitis operation for his son. Dr. Rivera was a seemingly well-educated ed man, which makes it interesting that El Paso rejected his request for a temporary admittance. He was listed as likely to become an LPC, though he didn’t state an intention to stay in the US.^[1] However, the United States government did not always deny the requests of non-American to enter the US temporarily in order to seek medical treatment. This was often the case for immigrants who worked on American owned ships. If a sailor was sick or injured while on the ship they worked on was docked at an American port, they would be allowed to receive treatment at American hospitals.^[2] One example of someone allowed into the US for treatment through El Paso was Wong-Fook Gem, a Chinese man who had contracted syphilis. In his case, he was granted entry into the United States in order to receive medical treatment for his syphilis, though he was given an escort the entire time.^[3] What we can see from these files is that immigration services had no real protocol for these cases, and because of that, many of the decisions to allow entry or not for those seeking medical treatment was left to the individual inspectors. This is a major trend that can be seen all throughout our research. Because of a lack of regulation that covers certain cases, such as in instances where non-American citizens sought entry into the US to receive medical treatment, the responses by American immigration officials who are left with making the decisions, vary widely.  

---

^[1] File 54,438-093, accession E9, Subject Correspondence, 1906-1932, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85 (National Archives, Washington, DC)

^[2] File 55,391-973, accession E9, Subject Correspondence, 1906-1932, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85 (National Archives, Washington, DC)

^[3] File 55,740-024, accession E9, Subject Correspondence, 1906-1932, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85 (National Archives, Washington, DC)

One of the files I came across this trip was about Reidley or Ridley Whitely. In his questioning, he stated that he was a 31-year-old East Indian sailor. He said that he came to Brooklyn on or about August 1, 1922, as a crew member of a British vessel. One of the papers in his file stated that “he is a native of the Barred Zone; he cannot read; he has no friends or relatives in the United States; states he is ill and unable to maintain himself.[1] This paper is referring to is the Barred Zone Act (1917), which imposed literacy tests and barred immigration from the Asia-Pacific zone. Another page even recommends that he should also be deported because he was a person likely to become a public charge as well. When asked about his deserting, he replied that he never intended to desert his ship. He said that he “went ashore to buy some things but I was taken sick and the ship sailed without me.”[2] His sickness, illegal status and race make him more eligible to be declared as an LPC.

One question that I found interesting was when the Inspector asked him if he was addicted to the use of drugs. His response to that question was “no, but about a year ago, I was with four men, two Americans and two East Indians who gave me something to drink. Since then I have been sick-weakened joints, headache, and dizzy spells.”[3] At the time of his questioning, the United States experienced a nationwide prohibition. His possible consumption of alcohol furthers his status as an LPC. Another paper in his file stated that “he has the appearance of one who is or has been addicted to the use of drugs.”[4] This sentence, in particular, makes me wonder if his inspector his connecting his sickliness to drugs. If so, could this be an early case of racial profiling?

Whitely also said that he has been to the United States before 1922. On Ancenstry.com, I found that he journeyed from Liverpool to New York on January 22, 1919.[5] He came via the Cretic, which had numerous South Asians as crew members. While his exact position cannot be determined, his record recognizes him as a Bengalize man who is able to read. His literacy status from this 1919 manifest differs from his 1924 case file. Could his inspector be fibbing it to ensure that he would be deported?

---

[1] Jones, Immigrant Inspector, Ellis Island, N.Y., August 26, 1924, File 55404/397; Court Transcript, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, (National Archives, Washington, DC.)

[2] Jones, Immigrant Inspector, Ellis Island, N.Y., August 26, 1924, File 55404/397; Court Transcript, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, (National Archives, Washington, DC.)

[3]Jones, Immigrant Inspector, Ellis Island, N.Y., August 26, 1924, File 55404/397; Court Transcript, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, (National Archives, Washington, DC.)

[4] Jones, Immigrant Inspector, Ellis Island, N.Y., August 26, 1924, File 55404/397; Court Transcript, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, (National Archives, Washington, DC.)

[5] Year: 1919; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 2620; Line: 23; Page Number: 155

Paul Hogue

On the 3^rd and final day of researching the National Archive Center, I found three documents from the INS on a 33-year-old South Asian immigrant of Indian descent in Montreal, Canada, by the name of Wattan Singh Pansar from file number 55986-264. He was living in Montreal because he needed to get a work visa to come to America and was waiting for approval from the INS.  The first letter was written on May 23, 1939, by Margaret E. Stevenson who worked in the Notary Public. The letter is about approval from INS to let Pansar into America so that he could go to training at his job at “RCA Manufacturing Company Inc,” which was a manufacturing company that specialized in manufacturing electronics for radio usage.  The document says that the purpose of the training “opportunity to improve himself in the art of servicing your petitioner’s products, and further of becoming more familiar with such products.”[1] The next letter was from Washington D.C. District Director of INS  J.L. Hughes giving his approval for Wattan to come to America saying: “It is a petitioned that the alien be granted a waiver of the excluded provisions of the contract labor section of the Immigration Laws, as one who may be temporarily admitted under the designated status of Student-Laborer.”[2] The last was from immigrant inspector Charles V. Nellet who gave his approval after doing a thorough background check on Wattan immigration status so that he can head to America. Each of the documents gives the reasons why they approved for Wattan to go to the U.S. from Montreal, Canada.

The letter from the INS approves of him being able to stay in America and work at the company.  The letter gives details with praises that his boss gave him so that they can give them an understanding of who he is as an employee. It shows how a boss’s role in getting an employee a visa for work is very critical.  This letter shows the process of getting approved for a work visa and a glimpse of the reasons for approval for an immigrant who planned on coming to America to work.

What the letter represents is the admiration of a white boss for an immigrant. Immigrants faced discrimination because of their ethnicity and the fears of taking over the jobs of American born citizens.  Americans did not want immigrants moving up either because they did not want them to have that much power with leadership. From the past documents, I read from the previous trip to the National Archive, they usually consisted of a deportation letter sent to an immigrant because of them being in the U.S. illegally. 

Reading a document that features praises and reasons why an immigrant should stay in America is amazing. It shows how an immigrant’s hard work to be accepted in his job. Even though he probably had to go through a lot, he was able to persevere through hard work to move up and given a visa to come to America to further his job skills.  It shows the trust that the company had for him to go to this training.

---

[1] Margaret, INS commissioner, Camden, New Jersey, May 23, 1939, File 55986-264, INS approval letter, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, (National Archives, Washington D.C.)

[2] J.L., INS District Director, Washington D.C., March 31, 1939, File 55986-264, INS approval letter, records of Immigration and Naturalization Service, (National Archives, Washington D.C.)

Blog Post 3

On the third and final trip to the national archives I did manage to find some interesting documents that could potentially help our final project. One thing that I have noticed throughout my research is that medical inspectors are far from perfect when it comes to their assessment of disease. Last time my group stumbled upon a 1912 discrepancy between the findings of a Dr. Hume, who found trachoma in multiple patients in Eagle Pass, and chief medical examiner Dr. Tappan, who re-examined these same immigrants and found them clean. I mention this because this time I once again found an example of discrepancy between two diagnoses—once again in 1912. In this instance it was the opposite problem. A Dr. Wright cleared a patient who had third-stage syphilis, a disease with very obvious physical symptoms. The main difference between the two cases is their final outcome: according to additional research conducted on Dr. Hume, he held his position until his death despite his feud with a superior-ranking doctor that went all the way to the Surgeon General. The final record for Dr. Wright, on the other hand, is him being unceremoniously fired. This would suggest that allowing immigrants with diseases into the country was dealt with much more strictly than denying access to healthy immigrants. Additional research has illuminated more facts about Dr. Wright: his full name is Frederick Thompson Wright, and after he was dismissed from the immigration services he traveled abroad, writing a (terrible) memoir about his travels in the exotic lands to the East (like, seriously, it’s just poorly-written. It’s racist, and it’s also a bad book). He also continued to practice medicine until 1926—interestingly, he was replaced in both his positions by the same doctor, a doctor Edward Adamson, in what could be a case of professional cronyism.

Commissioner-General, Washington, DC, to Surgeon General, Washington, DC, July 23, 1912, File 51836/14, Subject Correspondence, 1906-1932, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85 (National Archives, Washington, DC).

Rupert Blue, Surgeon General, to Commissioner-General of Immigration, Washington, DC, March 16, 1912, File 53431/25, Subject Correspondence, 1906-1932, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85 (National Archives, Washington, DC).

Archival Research 3                                                                                       Erin Andrewlevich

            One of the first files I looked through was file 55,245-252 on Lee Kwock Koon. This was the youngest case file so far, being 4 or 5 years old. This case was interesting because his file was individual even though he was travelling with his mother, Chang Shee. Many of the other files I have read about young children were paired together if they were siblings. Lee Kwock Koon and his mother were trying to gain entry through his stepfather, Lee Hong, who was a native born Chinese American. The medical examiner diagnosed Lee with “infancy class B” meaning that he needed to be in the care of a guardian, presumably his mother, in the case of either deportation or entry. He was denied entry because even though the status of his stepfather’s citizenship and the relationship between his parents was not contested, it was decided that there was no reason under the Chinese Exclusion Act for Lee to be granted entry. The case was reopened with further witness testimony, but the same decision was reached, and Lee Kwock Koon and his mother were deported to China.

            Another file I read was file 55,245-288 on siblings Fong You Fook, Fong You Mon, and Fong You Ton. These three, all in their early teens tried to gain entry to the United States through their merchant father living in America. They were deported on the grounds of discrepancies between the interrogations of the children. The case of the youngest child was reopened because there was believed to be a resemblance between him and his alleged father. He was still ultimately excluded and deported back to China along with his siblings.

            The file of Moi Dick Hong, file 55,245-570 shows the intensity of the interrogation process at Angel Island. Moi Dick Hong is a typical case, a 16 year old trying to gain status from his merchant father living in the United States. He was excluded for discrepancies between his testimony and the testimony of his alleged father. These discrepancies were about the material of the floor from the house in China that they were asked about. It just seemed so crazy to me that this was their reasoning for not believing the relationship was because of small details. It just seems they were looking for any reasons to exclude Chinese people.

            After 3 days of researching in the archives the overall I have read many, many similar cases. Almost all of them were cases of Chinese people between the age ranges of child to young adult, trying to gain access to the United States through an alleged family member who already had access to life in the United States around 1922 and 1923. Every single case I read was denied entry which I think is indicative of the intense exclusionary policies targeted towards this group of people.

Lee Kowck Koon. File 55245/252, accession E9, subject correspondence, 1906-1932, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85 (National Archives, Washington D.C). 

Fong You Fook, Fong You Mon, And Fong You Ton. File 55245/288, accession E9, subject correspondence, 1906-1932, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85 (National Archives, Washington D.C). 

Moi Dick Hong. File 55245/570, accession E9, subject correspondence, 1906-1932, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85 (National Archives, Washington D.C). 

               My research last week at the National Archives   in Washington consisted of Japanese and Chinese immigrants who were detained by Immigration services and used Habeas Corpus in order to try and get into the United States. Most of those that I research consisted of sons of merchants that were detained on account of differing testimonies.

               One example that I have is of the child Lim Show[1] who was seven when he arrived in the United States. He was the merchant son of Lim Jew who was a member of the firm Fay Yuen and Co in San Francisco.  Lim Show was denied access on account that the child was only able to answer simple answers and that any witnesses to the parentage was were only able to see the son for a few seconds. I could not find out what happened to him. One example at the opposite end of the spectrum of these particular type of case is the experience of Young Fook[2] and Young Yin, who arrived here on February 17, 1918. They were seeking admission as the sons of Young Pang who was a merchant of the firm of Quang Yah company. The immigrant Young Fook and Young Yi were denied on the allegation that they were not the sons of Young Yi as the is a discrepancy in the testimonies of both Young Fook and Young Yin in their immigration interrogation. I also cannot find out what happened to them, but it is most likely that they were deported  Other types of records that I found at the National Archives were Japanese families who immigrated to the United States and were detained due to discrepancies that the immigration had with the immigration laws of the United States. One example of this is the case of the  Yamashita[3] family who arrived in the United States with his family and was detained due the irregularity of their case.  Yamashita’s case families case is unique as the parents admitted that they were laborers in Japan , which regular would disqualify them from entering the United States. But due to the fact that  Miss Yamashita’s father was a farmer in the United States and partly due to a treaty between Japan and America that stipulated that America should issue passports to the laborers who are children of immigrants who lived  in the United States, they were allowed by the law to enter the United States.  Another unique part of this case was that sons (who were adopted) of Yamashita had American passports. What the outcome was of this unique case is unknown. What is unique about this case is that it involves the conflict of interest between the law of America and the international treaty between America and Japan.

               Out of all the cases that I read during our stay at the National archives, most of the files that I researched during our most recent outing had unknown conclusions. The best that I can do is infer from the text in the files that they were deported from the United States.

---

[1] Lim Show, File 54085/32, Accession E9, subject correspondence,1906-1932 , Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85 (National Archives, Washington D.C).

[2] Young Fook, Young Yi, File , Accession E9, subject correspondence, 1906-1932, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85 (National Archives, Washington D.C).

[3] M Yamashita and Family, File 54004/18 Accession E9, subject correspondence,1906-1932 , Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85 (National Archives, Washington D.C).

The files that I looked at dealt with liberty bonds and specifically how they were canceled after a person of Asian descent was sent back to Asia. Noor Din was an Indian national who came to the United States in 1922. Din applied for admission to the United States and was approved for temporary admission. He was denied admission into the country through San Francisco then he reapplied for entrance and was denied again. He left in 1914 to return to India, prior to leaving he made sure he had letters of recommendations from white Americans who knew him saying he was a good alien. Upon returning to the US and trying to gain entry he was denied because these letters were not seen as valid so he was denied entry. Eventually Noor Din is able to get into the United States, but his approval was not in the file iI was able to find out more about him through Ancestry.com. Din was seen again in the 1930 census where he had a 5-year-old daughter. He appears one more time in the 1950’s social security it also lists his residence in El Centro, California. Many South Asians settled In southern California where there was a large ethnic enclave. There were other liberty bonds, but they were for Chinese immigrants.

File 54988/36, Subject Correspondence, 1906-1932, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85 (National Archives, Washington, DC)

The final group trip to the National Archives for our group involved tidying up the loose ends from our previous visits. My goal for this visit was to find as much information as I could about the station at El Pasos daily operations and immigrants requesting entry into the U.S. through the port. I found three files about personnel shortages throughout the Mexico/America borders. The first file requested a female janitor that could speak both English and Spanish to clean the facilities and assist the Medical Director with inspecting female immigrants.[1] The need for a janitor was also outlined in the request citing that sanitation at the facility was poor and rooms overcrowded. The second and third files examined to discuss the shortage of Immigrant Inspectors at El, Paso, and Galveston, TX.  The station at Galveston, TX, was short inspectors and temporarily utilized an inspector from Port Author, yet that would not be able to continue much longer. The head inspector at El Paso expedited an inspector to Galveston to help fill the spot.[2] The station at El Paso had written as well looking for immigration positions to be filled at their station. All three of these requests were written in late 1909-1910, indicating a severe lack of personnel and a higher increase in immigration. A similar report detailing the opening of an immigration station opening in Corpus Christi, TX, could be the reasoning behind the shortage. The shortage of inspectors at the immigration facilities could be the reason immigrants that would typically have been excluded for medical conditions to enter the United States only later deported out of the country through El Paso.

---

[1]  File 53,100-600, accession E9, Subject Correspondence, 1906-1932, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85 (National Archives, Washington, DC)

[2] File 53,100-572, accession E9, Subject Correspondence, 1906-1932, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85 (National Archives, Washington, DC)