If it is serious, and they are cripples, and not able to earn their own living, they are not allowed to come into the country, but are sent back where they came from, at the expense of the steamship company.
In Spain and Italy, and indeed in many of the European countries, there are an amazing number of cripples who make their living by begging. These professional beggars are a dirty, shiftless set of people, a disgrace and a danger to the countries they live in.
If we allowed them to enter our country it would greatly increase our taxes and expenses, for we do not allow begging, and so, as the poor unfortunates must have food and shelter, we would send them to our almshouses, and have to pay to support them. So it is forbidden to allow cripples, or people incapable of earning their own living, to come into the country.
While the doctors are watching for cripples, they also examine the immigrants carefully, to see that they have not any kind of sickness. Only healthy immigrants are allowed to land, sick people being sent back.
When the immigrants have passed the doctors, they then reach the clerks, who must be satisfied that they have money, or friends in the country, before they give them permission to land.
People who come without money are divided from the rest, and are taken before a board of inquiry.
Here they are asked why they came to the country. If they have friends who have sent for them, and who agree to feed and shelter them, they are allowed to pass. If no friends come for them, they are kept on Ellis Island till their friends are found; and if no friends are found, they are sent back to their own country.
When they have been passed from Ellis Island the immigration law has not done with them. The law says that no charity shall be given to an immigrant who has been in this country for less than a year. Any person who asks for help, and has been less than a year over here, is sent back to Ellis Island, and from thence he is carried back to his own country by the same steamship company that brought him.
So you see that the laws are almost strict enough now, and the immigrants who succeed in passing through Ellis Island are a good, solid class of people, who are likely to become worthy citizens.