spiritus
22 Jun 2017 #3661
I doubt that many of them had any sort of proof of identity, any other written document or were even able to sign their name.
Keep moving the goalposts don't you ?
First you say that very few of them would have had any paperwork but it's reasonable to assume (and could be proven if I could give a rat's arse) that all passangers that travelled by ship would have been on the shipping manifest and therefore would not have been entering the United States illegally.
No comparison with the current wave of migrants who sail to Europe on rubber boats without any paperwork at all