The True History of Immigration in America
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- What most people don’t understand is when these millions of people came over through Ellis Island, we didn’t just open our arms and say, “Come on in,” the way the Democrats want to do now. These people were given a thorough examination by the ship, especially looking at their eyes. They take a device and flick up the upper eyelid, and if you had a disease called trachoma, you were automatically let go. They made you walk up and down steps to make sure you were strong and were not winded.
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Now, once the ship doctor performed his examination, you were put on the ship and you were sent to Ellis Island, where they gave you a second examination doing the trachoma exam once again, walking up and down the steps. And if you didn’t make it, you were sent back. About 2% of the people were sent back. And the reason why it was so low is because the ship doctor really did a thorough exam. If you were sent back, the ship had to pay for your passage back to Europe, so they wanted to make sure. We did not want anyone that could not work, was not healthy, and was not strong.
