Your Ancestors were illegals?

Think your ancestors came here legally? History begs to differ
Great article in the SacBee today points out that prior to the early 1900's there were no immigration laws. People just booked passage and moved here. Only 1% of people who showed up at Ellis Island were ever turned away.

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

really meant something then. Even after laws were passed to keep out less desirable people from Eastern and Southern Europe, they sneaked in by the thousands. In 1925 published reports stated that 1.4 million people were living here illegally. The government then instituted a process called pre-examination to legalize many of them. In current terms this would be called amnesty. Hypocrisy lives on and on today.