Immigrants Coming to NY Today Nothing Compared to Those Passing Through Ellis Island, AOC Says
12 million migrants entered via the famous processing center, congresswoman notes
Although a surge in immigration — including into New York City — has been blowing up as a political issue, at least one prominent congresswoman representing a slice of the Big Apple sought to put the recent influx in perspective.
Some estimates say that in the last year or so, New York City has received about 100,000 migrants seeking shelter.
New York Mayor Eric Adams (D) earlier this month made the claim that the current wave of migration could “destroy” the city.
Meanwhile, Republicans have been using immigration — particularly migration across the southern border — as a political cudgel against President Biden and other Democrats since Biden took office.
However, New York has a long history of embracing much larger numbers of immigrants, according to Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who represents a district encompassing the eastern part of The Bronx and part of north-central Queens.
“When it comes to people coming to New York City today are nothing. I'm telling you, nothing, compared to the daily amounts of people that we saw coming in through Ellis Island in the first half of this century,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “We're seeing, you know, more than 12 million immigrants that passed through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954.”
A federally owned island in New York Harbor, Ellis Island is situated within the states of New Jersey and New York, and was the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States from the late 19th through mid 20th centuries.
“And we have seen such huge numbers of people coming in per day that far eclipsed what we're seeing right now,” Ocasio-Cortez added.
Please support our work…
Please subscribe…