This inquiry explores the historical role news elites have played in shaping public perceptions of immigrants as a distinct social group. To that end, it distinguishes the discursive strategies employed by The New York Times to construct the ‘American immigrant’ during the Ellis Island years (1892–1924), a crucial period when some of the nation’s earliest immigration restriction laws were determined. It is displayed how the newspaper articles' discursive choices dehumanized immigrants, minimized their experiences, muted their voices and helped justify an unequal social hierarchy that places immigrants beneath non-immigrants.