Vincent Cannato, associate professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, describes the conditions on Ellis Island during the height of immigration to America during the late 19th and early 20th century. Cannato also discussed similarities between immigration laws that were in effect then and the ones in place today. Kellen Jenkins/The Bulletin

ESU’s Lectures on Liberty series brought Vincent Cannato, associate professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, in Boston, Mass., to The Granada Theatre on Wednesday night with stories and statistics of immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th century.

“I can see why immigration is an issue here in America,” said Nayaf Alluhaiden, junior computer information systems major. “But what’s made America great is having a small portion from everything. You have people from Europe, Africa, China and everywhere coming here. I can do my own cultural thing here very easily.”

The Lectures on Liberty series focuses on liberty’s role in American society as viewed by Republican and Libertarian speakers. The series was started by Greg Schneider, associate professor of history, with a grant from the Fred C. and Mary Koch Foundation.

“I am hoping this can be an annual event,” Schneider said. “In both of our lectures the historians involved presented a good topic with lots of contemporary relevance, addressing what it means to have liberty in a democratic society and what impingements government can bring to that.”

The lecture began with Cannato’s views on immigration’s relationship to democracy and liberty.

“Our adherence to democratic ideals often clashes with our Universalist creed of all men and women are created equal,” Cannato said.

Cannato provided statistics on immigrants coming into the United States via Ellis Island during the peak of American immigration in the late 19th and early 20th century. Examples of immigration legislation and political cartoons demonstrated the often hostile attitude that he feels America has had toward immigrants.

“I liked his use of political cartoons,” said Chelsea Rogers, freshmen secondary education major. “The lecture helped to broaden the ideas about immigration more than the classroom does, and it gives you a full spectrum.”

Cannato also discussed what he believes is the plight of many immigrants all over the world.

“The Declaration of Human Rights says that anyone can leave their nation for any reason they choose,” Cannato said. “However, it says nothing about making other nations take those immigrants in. There is nothing in that declaration that says immigrants have to be accepted anywhere.”

Correlations between the earlier wave of immigration and today’s new wave of immigrants were also emphasized in Cannato’s lecture. California’s Proposition 187, which sought to prevent illegal immigrants from using social services and public education, was an example of modern immigration legislation.

“Voters in California said ‘We will not pay social services to illegal immigrants,’” Cannato said. “It was later ruled as unconstitutional by a federal court.”

A question and answer session followed the lecture, where the subject of employment of legal and illegal immigrants at the Tyson meat packing plant in Emporia was entered into the discussion.

“Businesses like cheap labor,” Cannato said. “Meat packing houses and chicken plants, like Tyson, are natural places for immigrants to seek work.”

The question of the direction of modern immigration legislation’s future was also discussed.

“I am a historian and so many of our problems have no easy solution,” Cannato said. “I do predict that within the year the Obama administration will pass some kind of immigration reform and, like in the past, we will think it will solve our immigration problems all at once when it probably will not. This issue will continue to be something our nation deals with.”