Although it wasn't one of the largest U.S. ports in terms of immigrant numbers, the Angel Island Immigration Station is an important port for Americans with Asian ancestry. The Angel Island Immigration Station was a response to the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first such act to limit immigration based on race.

An "Ideal" Island
Angel Island was an "ideal" spot to handle Asian immigrant processing due to its isolated location in the San Francisco Bay. Far from the mainland, the island prevented immigrant communication with individuals in San Francisco, isolated immigrants with diseases and was also difficult to escape from. Thus the role of the immigration station at Angel Island was to keep people out as much as it was to let individuals in.

Immigrant Processing on Angel Island
Similar to immigrants arriving at Ellis Island, immigrants who came across the Pacific to Angel Island often traveled steerage class with tickets purchased with the help of family back home. Although the majority of immigrants through this station were Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean), other immigrants came from Russia, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Latin America.

On arrival at San Francisco, passengers with first-class or second-class tickets and U.S. citizens were allowed to disembark; other immigrants were ferried to Angel Island for processing. Upon arrival at the island's administration building, immigrants were separated by gender and given medical examinations - which included tests for parasitic infections. Once through the medical examinations, immigrants were assigned to a barrack, where they waited for their interrogation by the Board of Special Inquiry.

Immigrant Interrogations
Wanting to thwart this practice, U.S. immigration officials began conducting intensive interviews with Chinese immigrants. Questions were asked about an immigrant's genealogy, home village and other details. Witnesses and "family members" living in the United States were brought in to verify answers. Wrong answers could result in more scrutiny and even deportation.

Living Conditions on Angel Island
Some immigrants stayed at Angel Island only overnight, others weeks or months. Chinese immigrants were often detained for 2 or 3 weeks. While on the island, detainees lived in cramped barracks, sleeping on metal bunks. Locks, guards and a fence around the perimeter made sure no one escaped. Over time, detainees left poems etched in the barrack's wooden walls lamenting their experiences on the island.

In August 1940, the wooden administration building burned down, thus ending Angel Island's days as an immigrant-processing center. Estimates place the number of immigrants processed at Angel Island between 300,000 and almost 1 million.

Sources: Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, http://www.aiisf.org; immigration