During the 2016 presidential campaign, immigration became a major national issue. President Trump's executive order that places travel restrictions on citizens and refugees from six predominantly Muslim countries and that bans their entrance into the United States has resulted in nationwide protests and questions regarding the constitutionality of the order. The American Psychological Association (APA) issued a news release requesting President Trump to think through the potential consequences of his immigration order. APA fears that a travel ban targeting a population already subject to discrimination may result in their experiencing further trauma and stress. Has there been any other time, the authors argue, in the country's history that alarm over immigration caused such division, or is this reaction unique to the present cultural zeitgeist? In other words, is there any, to borrow a phrase from historian Barbara Tuchman (1978), "distant mirror" that can serve as a reflection upon the present times? The experiences of the immigrants passing through Ellis Island, they explain, during the first two decades of the 1900s may just serve as that distant mirror. In this article, the authors examine the history of mental testing of immigrants at Ellis Island.