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)