Bolingbrook Students Experience Ellis Island Immigration

Submitted by Valley View School District 365U

Their names were changed. They were yelled at. They were victims of discrimination. They were separated from their families. They were tossed in a detention center for no reason.

Dozens of Bolingbrook High School juniors learned what it was like to immigrate into the United States through Ellis Island, NY in the late 1890s and early 1900s thanks to an immigration simulation exercise Friday.

“We want them to really understand the difficulty the immigrants had coming into this country,” said BHS United States history teacher Ken Kulawiak. “Sometimes they would stand in line for five or six hours. Sometimes it would be the next day. They were detained. They were separated.”

Kulawiak and his team set up various stations similar to what it would have been like at Ellis Island. Students had to go through an application check, a citizenship test, a medical exam and a literacy test before they received final clearance to enter the United States. Many of them were sent to a temporary detention center.

Before simulation day, students spent several days learning about immigration procedures in their U.S. history classes. After filling out “checkout slips” describing how they felt about the process, they took a virtual tour of the real Ellis Island and took part in discussions about today’s immigration issues.