Port of El Paso Records

Arturo and Joseph,

Suzanne Harris of NARA has returned the batch of five requests I sent her. There were two cover letters that I will paraphrase here:

"Since 1845 there had been attempts in the United States to create or require a record of aliens within the country. Registration of alien enemy residents of the United States was required during World War I under section 19 of the President's Proclamation of November 16, 1917. A central set of records of the registration of alien enemies [Germans and ?], consisting of their registration affidavits, was assembled by the Department of Justice in Washington, DC during the war. However, in 1940, the Department of Justice reported to the National Archives that these registration affidavits had been destroyed with the permission of Congress. A small number of these registrations have survived and can be found in our regional archives in San Bruno, CA and Kansas City, MO. It is possible that others have survived on the county or state level."

"It was not until the Alien Registration Act of 1940 that a registry came into existence. The new law caused incoming immigrants and all aliens in the United States to be fingerprinted and to register annually with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Under this act, resident aliens registered at their local Post Office. In order to receive copies of Alien Registration records for the World War II period, it is necessary for you to submit the enclosed Freedom of Information/Privacy Act (Form G-639) request to the Immigration and Naturalization Service Headquarters, now know as the US Citizenship and immigration Services (USCIS), in Washington, DC.---"

I had sent her five requests, and she did find two records for 1916, one for my grandfather and one for his mother, both widowed when they immigrated, but the microfilm and copies she tried to make of the records were virtually illegible. I could barely read the one for my grandfather. I learned that he could read and write, that though born in Salitrillo, Zacatecas, he gave his last residence as Chihuahua, Chih. and his occupation was "Track Laborer". He also stated that he had been in the United States prior to then, something I knew because census records give an earlier date of immigration for him than for the the rest of the family. My father immigrated in 1913, so my grandfather must have gone back once more in 1916 to bring his mother over. I couldn't read his destination nor who it was that accompanied him, though I think it was his mother. The notation on the copies is: "RG [Record Group] 85, E128 Passenger and Crew Lists, 1897-1982 [Box #, Reel #] El Paso, TX
, Index
Stat [Statistical] and NonStat 1903-1924--". Nothing on the copy for my great-grandmother was legible except her name and age. She said she has also checked Microfilm A3412, Manifests of Statistical Alien Arrivals, 1909-1924 and those records were virtually illegible also. She then said "However, Microfilm A3406, Nonstatistical Manifests and Statistical Index Cards of Aliens Arriving at El Paso, Texas, 1905-1927, is now being processed and will soon be published. If you could resubmit your request in a few months, this microfilm will hopefully be available for research by then".

Emilie Garcia
Port Orchard, WA ---