It's likely a myth that Ellis Island inspectors changed immigrants' names, but historians say the errors actually happened overseas.

40% of Americans have ancestors who immigrated via Ellis Island

For over 60 years, Ellis Island was the gateway to America, processing millions of immigrants seeking a new life. While many passed through with ease, others faced rigorous medical exams, legal scrutiny, and even deportation. Learn how this small island shaped generations of American families.

Poems and stories inscribed on the walls of a US immigration island

What Ellis Island was to the East Coast, Angel Island was to the West. Just off the coast of San Francisco, this processing center became a detention center for those targeted by exclusionary immigration laws. Click here to read some of the stories left by the detained.

Both parties largely agree that America's immigration system is broken

This three‑part podcast series traces America's immigration system origins, revealing how historically celebrated Ellis Island-era policies evolved into today's fractured, fact‑starved debate—shedding light on economic, cultural, and political forces shaping the current dysfunction.

Before 1965, US immigration law relied on nationality-based bans and quotas.

US immigrants shifted from primarily originating in Ireland and Germany to Mexico and India.

The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act abolished national-origin quotas and transformed the demographics of America

Following decades of citizens pressing for reform, President Johnson signed legislation abolishing national-origin quotas, enabling increased immigration from Asia and Africa. The LBJ Presidential Library features photos, videos, audio clips, and text from the 1965 signing ceremony.

The 1924 Immigration Act established national-origin quotas favoring certain regions

The Johnson-Reed Act established stringent national-origin quotas favoring northern and Western Europeans while restricting immigration from other regions. This article chronicles the act's origins, its implications, and subsequent efforts to overturn these restrictions.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was America's first major immigration restriction

The act, signed in 1882, barred Chinese laborers from entering the United States, marking the first significant restriction on free immigration. This overview examines 19th-century Chinese immigration, rising anti-Chinese sentiment, and the diplomatic implications of exclusionary legislation.

The first time the US federally barred immigration based on nationality

Watch this six-minute video to learn about the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which was the first federal law to bar immigration explicitly because of nationality.

A timeline of US immigration laws

The United States began regulating immigration soon after it won independence from Great Britain, and the laws since enacted have reflected the politics and migrant flows of the times. Here's a timeline of key immigration laws from 1790 to 2014, according to the Pew Research Center.

Track the changes in US immigration law throughout history

This interactive timeline tracks the development of US immigration law, overlaid with time-series data on percentages of the foreign-born population. Explore how each major policy development correlated with immigration levels, revealing the relationship between legislation and demographic change.

Studies show immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans

Research examining incarceration records and crime data generally finds that immigrants—including undocumented individuals—have lower crime and incarceration rates than US-born citizens, though measurement is limited by gaps in national data on immigration status.

The Nationality Act of 1790 restricted new citizenship to 'free white persons'

The first federal citizenship law limited naturalization to white immigrants, excluding enslaved people, Indigenous communities, and most non-Europeans.

Congress regrets discriminatory laws targeting Asian immigrants

In 2011, Congress expressed regrets about discriminatory laws that targeted Asian immigrants, such as the 1875 Page Act. Click here to read one of the twin bills and learn more about the laws in question.

Many New Year's Eve traditions came from German immigrants

While it’s hard to trace the origins of many New Year’s traditions, many of the norms for American New Year’s Eve celebrations come from German immigrants, who significantly influenced American culture in the 1800s. Below is an excerpt from an 1863 New York Times article describing a German New Year’s celebration.

Grosse Île, the quarantine island of the Port of Quebec

As tens of thousands of Irish emigrated to North America to escape the Great Famine in the mid-19th century, many port cities set up quarantine areas amid an epidemic of cholera. In Quebec City on the St. Lawrence River, one island became a mass graveyard where over 3,000 Irish immigrants died over a decade as they waited in quarantine. Listen to the history here.

Immigrants generated about $1.7T in economic activity in 2023 and paid roughly $652B in taxes.

15,000 people from over 20 nations lived in these Lower East Side tenements

The Tenement Museum recreated authentic immigrant homes using artifacts from historic buildings that housed diverse communities between 1863 and 2011. Take a digital tour that explores the immigrant experience through carefully preserved living spaces and belongings.

Explore the different experiences of immigrant communities arriving in the US

Immigrant communities experienced varied paths to entry and assimilation in America, depending on their arrival time and context. This Library of Congress resource provides detailed accounts of the experiences of major immigrant groups, drawing on primary sources.

The canal carried germs as well as goods

In 1832, North America’s first cholera epidemic spread inland by way of the Erie Canal, carried by immigrants arriving on ships. Fearful towns barred passengers from disembarking, yet cholera, smallpox, and other diseases still traveled the waterway.

Visa overstays account for nearly 40% of illegal US entries

In fiscal year 2023, approximately 510,000 people overstayed their visas, while 860,000 crossed the border illegally, meaning overstays accounted for 37% of the total number of new unauthorized arrivals. This represents a shift from 2007 to 2018, when overstays outnumbered border crossings, to 2019, when illegal crossings surged again.

...and allowed newly arrived European immigrants to maintain their cultures

19th-century public schools often included Protestant spiritual instruction, something that was disturbing for Catholic immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Poland, and elsewhere, who found homes in neighborhood “parochial” schools.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement handles immigration enforcement within the interior of the US

ICE operates inside the United States, enforcing immigration laws through investigations, arrests, detention, and deportation of individuals residing in the country illegally. This page provides an overview of the agency's mission, structure, and internal enforcement operations.

The first H-1 visa was created in 1952

Congress established the original H-1 visa in 1952 through the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 to let US employers temporarily hire foreign professionals of "distinguished merit and ability" when qualified American workers were unavailable—a precursor to today's H-1B program.

US immigrants pay billions of dollars in taxes each year

While immigrants who are authorized workers pay taxes just like anyone else, even unauthorized workers file tax returns. These unauthorized workers use individual taxpayer identification numbers.

Irish music became popular in the US during the 19th century

The influx of Irish immigrants in the mid-1800s, driven by starvation and abysmal employment opportunities, led to a significant Irish-American culture, especially in urban hubs such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco.

ICE was created in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks

Created by the Homeland Security Act of 2002 following 9/11, ICE enforces federal immigration, customs, and trade laws under DHS. With over 20,000 staff across 400 global offices and an $8B budget, it focuses on detention, deportation, and cross-border criminal investigations.

The US government ran boarding schools designed to erase Native American identity

From the late 19th century into the 20th century, the federal government sent Native children to boarding schools under the philosophy of "kill the Indian, save the man." Children were forbidden from speaking their languages or practicing their cultures, and many endured abuse.

The share of the immigrant population in the US peaked at nearly 16% in January 2025

In January 2025, the US reached a historic high of 53.3 million immigrants—nearly 16% of the population. By June of that year, the number had fallen by more than a million, ending 50 years of continuous growth in the immigrant population.

An 1898 Supreme Court case confirmed birthright citizenship for children of immigrants

In 1898, the Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment guaranteed US citizenship to Wong Kim Ark, born in San Francisco to Chinese immigrants—establishing a lasting precedent for birthright citizenship regardless of parental status.

Early American citizenship was defined inconsistently by individual states

The original US Constitution did not define national citizenship, leaving it to the states to apply their own rules. This led to inconsistent and often exclusionary standards across the country until after the Civil War.

Policies related to the coronavirus pandemic inadvertently increased illegal border crossings

A pandemic-era public health measure called Title 42—intended to seal the border by expelling migrants immediately—backfired. Because expulsions carried no legal consequences, migrants simply tried again, driving illegal crossings to a peak of over 370,000 people in December 2023.

At 18, Eleanor taught immigrant children in one of New York's poorest neighborhoods

After finishing school in London, Roosevelt returned to New York and volunteered at a settlement house on Rivington Street in the Lower East Side, working directly with immigrant families living in poverty.

The WWII passport forgers who saved thousands of Jewish lives

Amid the chaos of Hitler's authoritarian Europe in World War II, Polish diplomats based in Switzerland used the classic toolkit of thieves to help free thousands of Jews: they perfected the art of forgery, faking passports secretly donated by sympathetic Latin American countries. Read the incredible tale of heroism here.

Native Americans were not granted US citizenship until 1924

The Indian Citizenship Act granted citizenship to all Native Americans born in the US, more than 130 years after the Constitution's ratification. Even then, some states continued to deny Native Americans the right to vote for decades.

Issues of ICE conduct span multiple Republican and Democratic administrations

Complaints of abuse and harsh treatment increased as detentions and deportations of undocumented immigrants reached record levels during former President Barack Obama's first term. Frontline investigated the causes of these claims in 2011 and found that these issues cross party lines.