Drawing on extensive new research, including immigration records, oral histories, and inscriptions on the barrack walls, the authors produce a sweeping yet intensely personal history of Chinese paper sons, Japanese picture brides, Korean students, South Asian political activists, Russian and Jewish refugees, Mexican families, Filipino repatriates, and many others from around the world who filtered into America through Angel Island.

Introduction -- Guarding the Golden Gate: the life and business of the immigration station -- "One hundred kinds of oppressive laws": Chinese immigrants in the shadow of exclusion -- "Agony, anguish, and anxiety": Japanese immigrants on Angel Island -- "Obstacles this way, blockades that way": South Asian immigrants, U.S. exclusion, and the gadar movement -- "A people without a country": Korean refugee students and picture brides -- In search of freedom and opportunity: Russians and Jews in the promised land -- "El norte": Mexican immigrants on Angel Island -- From "U.S. nationals" to "aliens": Filipino migration and repatriation through Angel Island -- Saving Angel Island -- Epilogue: the legacy of Angel Island.