There was no restriction on immigration from Mexico into the US until 1964. Until then, the border was open, legally. Isn't that amazing? You see, fashioning good public policy is a rather complex matter. It takes a certain, je ne sai qua.
WR learned American history from reading "Classics Illustrated".
Did you know that in 1964 Hispanics were less than 5% of America's population? There was in fact very little immigration from Mexico up until then for a variety of reasons such as language barriers, poor transportation forced assimilation and no welfare.
Restrictions on immigration from Mexico were put into place when guest worker plans in effect then were leading to increased immigration from Mexico that could no longer be ignored and U.S. welfare programs started to proliferate. Interesting how those 2 things kind of go together.
You see, fashioning good public policy is a rather complex matter.
I certainly hope you are not characterizing our current pubic policy as "good" though I agree it is complex...in a rat nest kind of manner.