Shipping companies were key actors in implementing immigration laws, especially with the growing trend to make the lines responsible for keeping “undesired” groups out of the US by making the cost of detention and deportation increasingly expensive. Previous studies of American immigration have too often focused on congressional debates and the bills enacted, but there are few discussions of their enforcement. The failure to introduce a literacy test has led many authors to conclude that the Immigration Restriction League (IRL), with its emphasis on eugenic theories, had little influence on policy. Yet statements by Ellis Island Supervisor John Weber show that “scientifically based” prejudices towards the “new” immigrants existed before the literacy test was even considered by Congress. Officials at the control stations designed ways to use existing laws to block the entry of “undesirables.” The failure to enact a literacy test notwithstanding, the racist approach gained ground. The introduction of the “list of races and people” in 1898 further divided the growing influx of Europeans into various degrees of whiteness.1 As the proportion of migrants from southern and eastern Europe surpassed those from northern and western Europe by 1896, calls for restrictions based on the racist notion that the new wave threatened the “integrity” of the American race and institutions became louder. While the efforts of the shipping companies to prevent the passage of restrictive legislation up to 1914 will be discussed in this chapter, the principal focus will be on how they blocked the implementation of the laws.

Immigration Policies as Implemented at Ellis Island

Policies under Herman Stump and Joseph Senner, 1893-1897

While fierce debates about further restrictions took place in Washington, the New York Commissioners of Immigration seemed quite happy to use laws passed in 1891 and 1893 to stem the influx of new migrants. In particular, the “likely to become a public charge” (LPC) clause allowed inspectors to reject migrants they deemed undesirable without requiring too much evidence. Under the leadership of Commissioner General of Immigration Herman Stump and his deputy, Joseph Senner, detentions and deportations increased in the mid-1890s. W.H. van den Toorn reported that tighter controls at Ellis Island were swelling their maintenance bills. For instance, at the end of 1894, 138 of the 230 passengers on Amsterdam were detained.