Cite as: 523 U. S. 767 (1998)
Stevens, J., dissenting
it is certainly fair to infer that the new immigrants believed that they had arrived in New York.
Similarly, residents of Ellis Island—all of whom lived on the filled portions of the Island—believed that they lived in New York. Documents executed by residents of the Island during the relevant period consistently referred to their address either as "Ellis Island, N. Y.," or as "Ellis Island, New York." These references appear not only in voting records, but in other miscellaneous documents as well. Given the fact that the United States Postal Service placed the Island in a New York postal zone, presumably the residents regularly received mail addressed to "Ellis Island, N. Y." There is no evidence that any of those residents prepared or received any mail or other documents describing their residence as in New Jersey.
Thus, the available evidence supports the proposition that the new immigrants, as well as everyone who lived on the Island during that period, thought that all of Ellis Island was a part of New York. Significantly, as far as I am aware, there is not a single indication in the voluminous record 8 that any immigrant or any resident thought that Ellis Island, in whole or in part, was a part of New Jersey.
VI
On the few occasions identified in the record when it was necessary to obtain state or municipal assistance for law enforcement or fire protection on Ellis Island during the relevant period, those services were performed by New York employees. Thus, in the 1897 fire, "New York rushed twenty policemen to keep order among the panic-stricken immigrants." 9 In 1916, New York City firemen extinguished a fire in the seawall cribbing. In 1934, New York police investigated a fatality that resulted from a construc-8 The record contains over 2,000 documents (some of which are hundreds of pages long) and over 4,000 pages of trial testimony.
9 Corsi 114.
821
Page: Index Previous 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007