I’ve just finished the book The Next Ship Home, a historical fiction book that focuses on Ellis Island. Through the story it explores many problems immigrants had there in the early 1900s.

My grandmother’s journey

My grandmother, Rose Katarina Blaich, came from Germany through Ellis Island in the early 1900s. She traveled with her sister, Mina. I’m sure they endured a rough ocean voyage in steerage, as they were not wealthy. And I hope they didn’t suffer the abuses the book discusses after they arrived at Ellis Island, also known as the Isle of Tears. She is pictured here on her Resident Alien Card in 1918. By this time she had married my grandfather, fellow German immigrant August Weide, and had several of her eight children.

Mistreatment of immigrants

But back to the book and history. Again, while fiction, the book relates stories of mistreatment of immigrants by the workers at the island. Women were especially exploited and in some cases forced to provide sexual favors. The more I read about women and their history here and abroad, the more I realize how far we’ve come. But have we?

Dobbs and women today

I also realize how ready some people are to push us back. The Dobbs ruling, which overturned Roe v. Wade, is just one example. But it’s a huge one that could lead to dismantling many rights for women and others. In my fiction book, one of the main characters is forced to have sex with her Ellis Island inspector in exchange for his signing her admission documents. She finds out later she is pregnant with his child. She fears she will lose everything for which she came to the United States in the first place. When confronted, the inspector said she lured him into the sex act.

The woman then faced losing her job and having an unwanted infant on her hands in a strange land. She also faced deportation for undesirable conduct.

Ellis Island today

Today, Ellis Island is part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument and is an immigration museum. Embassies around the globe now provide the immigration procedures once done there. (Unless, of course, you talk about the Southern border with Mexico. That’s another story for another day.)

How far, ladies?

I also think many women have better options today when pressured for sex. I hope women immigrants everywhere are free from pressure to perform sexual favors for admission to the U.S. But under Dobbs, women in many states face the same dilemma today as our heroine with an unwanted pregnancy. They can carry the baby to term or try to get to a more liberal state for an abortion. How far will the crackdown on rights extend? How far back are we willing to be pushed, ladies?