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Ellis Island officially opened as an immigration station on January 1, 1892. Seventeen-year-old Annie Moore, from County Cork, Ireland was the first immigrant to be processed at the new federal immigration depot.
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. 1  Play video Faces of America. 2  Play video Detained at Ellis Island. 3  Play video The Light of Ellis Island.