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No. The last person to pass through Ellis Island was a Norwegian merchant seaman by the name of Arne Peterssen, and he did so in 1954. From that point until 1976, the island was closed to the public. Now, of course, thousands of people visit the island every year to try to imagine what their ancestors must have felt upon seeing New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty for the first time. In fact, thanks to New York and New Jersey's very public (and somewhat humorous) disagreement over jurisdiction in 1998, it can be argued that some of Ellis Island's more interesting moments have come in recent years. So, now that the
"the golden door" of Ellis Island has closed, is there a modern-day equivalent? We suspect not, as the entire immigration process has changed tremendously. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the number of immigrants admitted into the country was roughly 705,000 in 2003 -- this figure peaked back in 1989, when around 1.8 million came to America. Mexico and India are now the leading "source countries" for legal immigrants, while in the 1920s, Europeans accounted for more than 50% of new arrivals.
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