[3] Committee member Arthur Schlesinger Jr pointed out that most Irish and Italian Americans were not first-generation and therefore ineligible.
[5] Fugazy awarded the first 80 Ellis Island Medals of Honor on October 27, 1986; recipients present included Joe DiMaggio, Victor Borge, Anita Bryant, Muhammad Ali, Rosa Parks, and Donald Trump (a business associate of Fugazy).
[3] In 1992, they hired a steamroller to crush Sinéad O'Connor's records after she tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on the late-night show Saturday Night Live to protest the Catholic church's involvement in child abuse.
[6][7] In 2018, Ellis Island Honors Society communications director confirmed that Donald Trump was a 1986 recipient of the Ellis Island Medals of Honor and that a photo of the event with Trump alongside Muhammad Ali and Rosa Parks was authentic.
From 1987 to 1990, NECO gave booby prizes called "Golden Pit Awards" to television shows and motion pictures which exploited ethnic stereotypes.