“I’ve heard that refrain before—the 1840’s when the Irish Catholics escaping the Irish Potato Famine showed up, the 1880’s to 1924 when the southern and eastern Europeans showed up, the 1980’s with the Vietnamese boat refugees, and now with the Latinos.”
Yup. In a sense, we have always been a “dumping ground” (see: tired, poor, huddled masses). Which makes sense given our history of immigration - people tend to emigrate en masse when they are poor and desperate, not wealthy and comfortable.
Obviously, economic conditions have changed, and there is a real question of whether our modern, information-driven economy can sustain waves of relatively uneducated “huddled masses.”
Can’t be a welfare state and a dumping ground for third world countries. Choose one or the other.
Indeed, the original 13 American colonies were created specifically to escape the bad conditions in Europe at the time the colonies were founded. It's not a coincidence that the Puritans and Quakers--facing religious intolerance in England--were among the first American colonists. Also, after the Thirty Years' War ended, many Germans living what was the Holy Roman Empire--ravaged by the effects of that war--emigrated to the American colonies of Pennsylvania and New York between 1680 and 1760 to start new lives.