Question

What happened to immigrants from europe who traveled to america in steerage?

Answer 1

Steerage is the lower deck of a ship. With low privacy and security, bad food and sanitary conditions, steerage was inhumane and many passengers died during travel.
Worse case of steerage passenger abuse was in 1912, when in the eight weeks of voyage, there was 58 deaths, among them was 57 children.

Answer 2

They were sent to Ellis Island to face legal and medical inspections.