Agree the people poor multitudes pouring in had freedom of choice. Nobody forced them to come. Just like the 10 million + illegal aliens who poured into the country during the Biden regime were not forced to come and had freedom of choice too.
The result of this uncontrolled flood of poor people led to many of the same abuses then that we see now...people trafficked, sweat shops, very unsanitary living conditions, etc. I hate to even put it like this because these are terms the Commies often use, but there was real “exploitation” of many of these poor people by corporate fatcats going on. The presence of so many allowed them to crush the bargaining power of American workers too.
This difference was Ellis Island and the fact the country had control over who was accepted and who wasn't.
With democrats it's always who's paying them off... The illegals didn't get here on their own. They were moved by global elites to undermine the country NOT to 'pick crops'.
That was a cover story.
Fewer than 3% ever picked crops. Most moved to large democrat cities and cashed in on benefits provided by corrupt democrat groups - NGO's nonprofits etc - - -and idiots like FEMA who took funds earmarked for American citizens and put illegals up in four and five star hotels...