Let me give you Secretary Daviss own description of the situation at that time: With the passage of this restrictive law. there occurred a change in the work of the Secretary of Labor. Appealsfrom adverse decisions rendered at the ports of entry are made direct to the "Sectetary of Labor and this 1921 act increased the number of such appeals from a nominal few to about 3.000 a month. As I._have said. .I have been myself an alien. and an immigrant. anil in every one of these cases which have come before me I have tried to do justice and to show mercy to the immigrant. Facilities at Ellis Island were strained because erected to care for only from five to seven hundred people. at times there were thrust into it as many as three thousand or more. We permitted them to be landed at the Island because we felt that they were better off even in these craip.(l quarters than in the steerage accommodations in some of the ships in which they came. While these immigrants were detained under tbese conditions. appeals came to the department. thousands at a time. and there were only two officers here who could. by law. entertain them. the Assistant Secretary of Labor and myself. Many times I have myself. though anything but a weakling. been on the very edge of breaking down. It was grind. from 6 oclock one morning until 2 the next. making decisions and signing appeals.
Keywords matched
immigrant immigrants steerage