Detained!
For those not given approval for entry into the United States either for not meeting a restriction or having to wait out an illness, Ellis Island became a temporary home for days, weeks, sometimes months. In 1907, a particularly busy year for the island, one in ten of the immigrants processed through Ellis Island were detained, left to stay in the detainee dormitories or hospital wing for an unknown amount of time. While they had a dormitory room and three meals a day for the duration of their stay, they were detained until their issue resolved. Most cases, like immigrants waiting for money to arrive or proof of a destination address, resolved in a day or two. But some cases lingered on. Moreno notes these cases might be issues of questionable morality, suspected radicalism, or “immigrants who were being brought in to break strikes.”