The present station is not fit for the transaction of the immigration business. In the first place. it is divided into three parts. the detention station is away up in the middle of the city. the receiving station is not under the control. of the United States at all. out on a rickety. windswept. dirty wharf. and the detention house a place where immigrants ought not to be allowed to land. They occupy a building which is apparently about 125 years old. is absolutely unfit for the purpose. and so insecure that any immigrant detained for trachoma. anarchy. or any other reason. with usual intelligence. ought to be able to get out of that place and get into the United States. It is not under United States officials. but steamship officials. The Immigration Commission. which has visited every port north of Baltimore on the Atlantic seaboard. is unanimously of the opinion that the station at Philadelphia is a disgrace and ought to be ended.
Identified stereotypes
Immigrants detained for trachoma or anarchy are assumed to have the intelligence to escape the detention center.