Herbert A. Weiss Immigration Law Blog on Lawyers.com

If you’re like me, you enjoy sifting through old family photos and documents in order to piece together your family history.  I have spent countless hours trying to locate and examining old documents relating to the lives of my parents and my in-laws to gain a better understanding of their historical experience.  Not only have I been rewarded with a deeper understanding of their circumstances, but it has satisfied both an intellectual and emotional curiosity about the events that shaped the lives of the people who have mattered dearly to me.

For those interested in U.S. immigration law, it is interesting to note that the first law that enabled the U.S. government to keep track of the arrival of aliens from distant shores was The Steerage Act of 1819.  Prior to the Act’s passage, there was really no way for the federal government to keep track of who was entering the U.S. and in what numbers. The Steerage Act enabled the federal government to compile information on foreigners arriving here by mandating that all vessels reaching the U.S. deliver to customs officials their passenger lists.  The lists were then forwarded to the State Department and Congress.  The Steerage Act also limited the numbers of passengers on arriving and departing ships.

The Steerage Act was a recording-keeping tool but nothing more.  It made no effort to regulate the kind of person who was allowed to immigrate, and the states were left with the task of determining who was welcome to our shores and who was not.  It remained pretty much this way until the last quarter of the nineteenth century. 

Today we have a vast array of government records available that can help us trace our historical antecedents.  From the U.S. National Archives numerous records can be obtained about out immigrant ancestors including the passenger manifests of the ships on which they arrived.  How thrilling and inspiring it can be to examine these records and then to use one’s imagination to picture how it must have been for grandma and grandpa (or whomever) to have sailed past The Statue of Liberty and then to step foot on Ellis Island to undergo a grueling immigration inspection.  This scenario is an indelible part of America’s cultural heritage.

Today foreigners who have had contact with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services can obtain copies of pertinent records and documents through the filing of an application under The Freedom of Information Act.  Not only do these records have legal import as it is often vital for foreigners to be fully familiar with their immigration history, but it has personal value as well as they provide an historical record of an applicant’s U.S. immigration history.  An examination of these records gives one insight into the personal story of someone who has arrived on our shores in what is usually a quest for a better, more fulfilling life. 

We Americans should be deeply grateful that our government and way of life supports and facilitates the free sharing of historical information and documentation that impacts so fundamentally on the lives of our nation’s populace.  These records are nothing less than a cultural treasure.