America has always limited immigration. In 1920 it passed the Chinese or Asian Exclusion Act. No more Asians allowed to enter America.
At Ellis Island, if you had TB, or similar deadly diseases, you were turned away. The same if you could not show you could support yourself. That meant having enough money for at least a couple of weeks or more, so you would not be a ward of the state. A firm job offer or people who knew you and would take you in were vital
Immigration was very much not a show up and be let in till the last sixty or less years. A