What is the White Man's Burden and how did it impact this case?
According to the dictionary, the White Man's Burden can be defined as...
"the idea that it was the moral obligation of white Europeans and Americans to civilize and uplift non-white populations, particularly in colonized regions".
This idea argued that colonialism was actually beneficial for the colonized peoples because they are "inferior" and "uncivilized", explaining that White Europeans and Americans have a moral duty to govern these people because they could never possibly govern themselves. The idea of the White Man's Burden had a huge impact on this case, the public image of Hispanic people, and the colonization of Puerto Rico as a whole.
To showcase a few examples and set the tone of the time period:
Downes v. Bidwell (1901): case on tariffs levied on goods shipped between Puerto Rico and the United States
Supreme Court Justice Edward Douglass White ruled that newly-annexed territories were not properly part of the United States. He stated that:
"Take a case of discovery. Citizens of the United States discover an unknown island, peopled with an uncivilized race, yet rich in soil, and valuable to the United States for commercial and strategic reasons. Clearly, by the law of nations, the right to ratify such acquisition and thus to acquire the territory would pertain to the government of the United States.... Can it be denied that such right [to acquire] could not be practically exercised if the result would be to endow the inhabitants with citizenship of the United States..., even although the consequence would be to ... inflict grave detriment on the United States to arise [from] the immediate bestowal of citizenship on those absolutely unfit to receive it?"
He aruged that the United States inherently has a right to annex any "unknown island" with people of an "uncivilized race" merely because it will be economically valuable to the United States. Additionally, he aruged that some people are inherently "unfit" to receive citizenship, and granting these people citizenship would cause harm to the United States as a whole.
New York Times 1899 letter to the editor, which was published in the official New York Times, states
"These people, as all people, of right ought to be free and independent. But children and vast hordes of people cannot be free and independent because they have not sufficient knowledge to govern themselves. Let us educate these people, and teach them what a government of the people means. They do not know, and never will, unless the people of the United States teach them. It is just and fair to educate them."
"...Organize a system of free schools, teaching nothing but English, and in a few years a portion of these people can be safely admitted into the Government. In less than twenty-five years it will be a colony of American citizens, who will be able to organize a Government on republican lines. It is the only way we can govern these people with any hope of success."
Isabel González was born in 1882, and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico with her parents Severo González and Antonia Dávila. At this time period, Spain was completely under control of Puerto Rico, as Puerto Rico was still considered a colony of Spain. This means that Isabel González was legally considered a "native inhabitant" and a Spanish subject. Isabel González lived through the Spanish-American war, and the year after the war ended (1899), Isabel González got married and gave birth to her first daughter at just 17 years old.
In August of 1902, González's husband died of Tuberculosis, making her a widow. Additionally, she was pregnant with her second child at the time and did not have a stable source of income. To combat this and give her children a better life, she made the decision to leave her first daughter with her parents (the child's grandparents), and move to New York to find a job.
González boarded her ship, the S.S. Philadelphia from her hometown San Juan, expecting to be dropped off at her destination in the port of New York. However, while she was on her trip, the United States Treasury Department's Immigration Commissioner General F. P. Sargent suddenly changed immigration guidelines, marking her and her peer's status to "aliens". Due to this, she arrived to New York on August 4, 1902 and was immediately transferred to Ellis Island, the busiest immigration processing centers in the United States.
A New Immigration Challenge
At the time, a new commissioner of immigration at Ellis Island was just established, his name was William William Williams. He was the federal commissioner for the port of New York, but his office was in Ellis Island and he held a lot of power and influence on Ellis Island as well. He was known for his very strict enforcement of immigration laws in Ellis Island, specifically on the policy to exclude and deport immigrants who were "likely to become public charge" (LPC) under the The immigration Act of 1891. This Act was established with the growing popularity and fear towards the eugenics movement, and accepted that immigrants can be denied entry into the country based on their "likeliness to become a public charge", meaning the likeness to rely on government assistance. This law was not only to prevent immigrants from relying on public assistance, but also to save government spendings.
William Williams instructed inspectors to label people as "public charges" if they were unmarried and had children, even though most unmarried women were already expecting to receive a job once they entered the country. The policy of Ellis island stated that unmarried women were always detained for further investigation, and that single women were only released if they had a family member to claim them. Additionally, in 1891, Congress passed a law that required all pregnant women trying to enter the United States to prove that they were married, making it even harder for González and other women to enter the United States.
As a result of all these issues and ideas, González was detained and deported as an "alien immigrant"
