What I did was read the “new” law. The Hart-Celler Act of 1965 (the immigration law amendment Ted Kennedy sponsored and which was subsequently passed by the Senate and signed into law by Lyndon Johnson, actually imposed the FIRST CAP on immigration from the Americas. This marked the first time numerical limitations were placed on legal immigration from Latin American countries including Mexico. (Source—Wikipedia)
I agree the old law was far more stringent, however it appears the new law was intended to increase immigration only from Asia and Africa, not from Latin America.
Further it did not appear to have altered the Constitutional remedies available to the President to protect the national borders and to repel invasions with military force. Kennedy’s amendments only changed the ethnic mix of immigration, not enforcement of wider immigration law.
The 65 Act and the Reform Acts changed the fact that this country was created by and fought for by mostly English, Scotch, and other northern Europeans in the early wars. Then the Irish and Italians came. Add some Greeks. Yes, Mexicans came, but; mostly for seasonal farm jobs like picking crops. Hell, my uncle’s apple orchards in upstate NY depended on French Canadians to pick the apples.