Another problem with this analysis is that it ignores how long and disruptive the process of assimilating the Irish was.
We're talking 40-50 years, during which time America's big cities saw the rise of Irish ghettos, Irish gangs, ethnic strife, expliosion of Irish social pathologies, and corrupt machine politics driven by Irish immigration (okay, it does mention the last one).
It took a long time for the Irish to assimilate and for these problems to go away. And that happened thanks in part to the period between 1920-1965 during which there was virtually no immigration.
Why should we go through that painful process again with another group that is even more backward the the Irish of the mid-19th century?
"Why should we go through that painful process again with another group that is even more backward the the Irish of the mid-19th century?"
It was that bad with the Irish and they didn't get to collect welfare and they all spoke English! Plus during those years when the Irish came into America we were having wild growth unlike anything thats ever been seen before and might never been seen anywhere on earth. We had industrialization mixed with almost unlimited land. Now America is almost completely settled, and we are sending our industry overseas. Why do we need millions of immigrants?