05-11-2010, 09:40 PM
ClassicalLib17 Wrote:I think this paragraph disputes your assertion that we allowed illegal aliens to enter our country freely.
I think you read something into my writing that was not there. I used the term "open door policy". While that may not have been the best choice of words to express what I meant it did not in any way imply illegal entry. I even used the term "legal entry" later in a follow up sentence. Maybe you just need glasses.... not beer glasses either!
The policy at that time was very open. Almost anyone who wanted to get in got in.... and they came by the millions. I did not imply the immigrants were illegal.
Now, in terms of what happened during processing at Ellis Island I only know what my father told me from his first hand experience. What you present in your post as fact is mere hearsay... and even it it was "official policy", we all know how things happen very differently in the real world. My father told me exactly what happened because I asked him when he was alive. I have seen both my fathers and grandfathers records from Ellis Island. My father said the only thing they asked him was his name, his mother and fathers name, where he was from, if he had a place to stay and his occupation. He later achieved citizenship when he was in the U.S. Army during WWII.