>In black and white photos and crackly films shot through with static, a classic image of the United States at the turn of the last century emerges: a near constant rush of immigrants, most destined to pass through Ellis Island. There they were given a cursory disease check, questioned, and in most cases, allowed to proceed on their journeys inward. This was easy enough to do without a global standard for identifying documents. Now, as immigration policy takes center stage worldwide, it’s hard to imagine just how they got through without them.
This is misleading, because it gives the impression that the US back then had open borders in those pre-passport days. It did not, at least at Ellis Island and its counterparts at other port cities. Those disease checks were cursory because all such were cursory c. 1900.
More relevant, no one was allowed in, regardless of health check, unless they could prove that they had either financial resources to support themselves, or a US sponsor willing to provide such support. Ocean liner companies like Cunard, White Star, and Hamburg American prescreened their passengers, because those turned away were the transport companies' responsibility to carry back. (The same goes for airlines today.)