TheWeekInCongress.com

Week Ending May 27, 2005

 

House Resolution 606 to authorize appropriations to the Secretary of Interior for the restoration of the Angel Island Immigration Station in the State of California.

                                                                                         

BRIEF

  The State with the most insurmountable immigration woes and expenses, it is somehow ironic that California wants to improve the use of the old Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay as a State park.

   The primary entry point on the US West Coast for early 1900 immigrants, the facility still houses 140 poems written on the walls by immigrants awaiting entrance or persevering detention there.

    The facility is already a popular destination for school trips and general tourist visits.

    The bill sets restoration of the island hospital as a spending priority.

 

 

Sponsor: Representative Lynn C. Woolsey (D-CA-6th)

Vote: Passed House by voice vote (May 23, 2005)

Cost to the taxpayers: $15 million is authorized. The bill stipulates that Federal funds can not exceed fifty percent of the cost of the restoration.

## All Rights Reserved. © 2005 TheWeekInCongress.com No reproduction or distribution without written permission from TheWeekInCongress.com.

 

MORE INFORMATION

The Congress makes the following findings:

(1) The Angel Island Immigration Station, also known as the Ellis Island of the West, is a National Historic Landmark.

(2) Between 1910 and 1940, the Angel Island Immigration Station processed more than 1,000,000 immigrants and emigrants from around the world.

(3) The Angel Island Immigration Station contributes greatly to our understanding of our Nation's rich and complex immigration history.

(4) The Angel Island Immigration Station was built to enforce the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and subsequent immigration laws, which unfairly and severely restricted Asian immigration.

(5) During their detention at the Angel Island Immigration Station, Chinese detainees carved poems into the walls of the detention barracks. More than 140 poems remain today, representing the unique voices of immigrants awaiting entry to this country.

(6) More than 50,000 people, including 30,000 schoolchildren, visit the Angel Island Immigration Station annually to learn more about the experience of immigrants who have traveled to our shores.

(7) The restoration of the Angel Island Immigration Station and the preservation of the writings and drawings at the Angel Island Immigration Station will ensure that future generations also have the benefit of experiencing and appreciating this great symbol of the perseverance of the immigrant spirit, and of the diversity of this great Nation.

 

## All Rights Reserved. © 2005 TheWeekInCongress.com.

No reproduction or distribution without written permission from TheWeekInCongress.com.