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Immigration to Ellis Island peaked between 1892 and 1924, during which time the 3.3-acre island was enlarged with landfill (by the 1930s it reached its current 27.5-acre size) and additional buildings were constructed to handle the massive influx of immigrants.
Individual states regulated immigration prior to the 1892 opening of Ellis Island, the countryâs first federal immigration station. New laws in 1965 ended the quota system that favored European immigrants, and today, the majority of the countryâs immigrants hail from Asia and Latin America.nother major wave of immigration occurred from around 1815 to 1865. The majority of these newcomers hailed from Northern and Western Europe. Approximately one-third came from Ireland, which experienced a massive famine in the mid-19th century. In the 1840s, almost half of Americaâs immigrants were from Ireland alone.