Angel Island's history offers lessons on immigration policy

Angel Island, similar to Ellis Island, but on the west coast, opened 100 years ago. Immigration reform advocates can learn much, both good and bad, from its history. - - Donna Poisl

The immigrant station's past underscores America's contradictory approach to immigration: The U.S. welcomes the 'huddled masses yearning to be free' even as it unfairly detains and deports newcomers.

By Erika Lee and Judy Yung

One hundred years ago today, the Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay opened its doors. From 1910 to 1940, the "Ellis Island of the West" was the gateway into America for more than half a million immigrants from 80 countries, all seeking the opportunity, freedom and fortune of the American dream.

Among them was a Chinese immigrant who carved the following poem into the barrack walls while detained on Angel Island:
I clasped my hands in parting with my brothers and classmates.
Because of the mouth, I hastened to cross the American ocean.
How was I to know that the western barbarians had lost their hearts and reasons?
With a hundred kinds of oppressive laws, they mistreat us Chinese.
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