Testimony of Albert Wank

This testimony was given as part of the Wright-Crater Investigation into allegations of board inspectors taking money from immigrants to lie about their citizenship status. It is part of “Wright and Crater’s Investigation” of immigrant arrival procedures on Ellis Island from 1901–1902. In August 1901, Commissioner of Immigration at New York, Thomas Fitchie, detailed Immigrant Inspectors John A. Wright and Robert S. Crater to initiate an investigation into the inspection of arrivals at the dock on Ellis Island, focusing on those claiming citizenship. The investigation was triggered by the arrest of a steward for bribing a boarding officer. In a brief but intense period of study, major discrepancies in the rate of discharge were found among employees, with very divergent levels of adherence to procedures in the Boarding Division. The question arose of whether this insufficient scrutiny of citizenship claims was associated with bribery. This document was digitized by teachers in our Primarily Teaching 2014 Summer Workshop in Washington, D.C.