I don't know why I punish myself .... I think you're spot on, but IMHO there are two things I'll add that I think makes some difference in today vs. yesterday:
- Proximity: Asian and European immigration inherently limited by logistics; as the Caravan shows, basically all of Central America can walk to the U.S. and claim "asylum;" by the logic of many, we should just effectively annex Central America.
- Political correctness: somewhere during the last 20 years many liberals intelligentsia decided it was racist to expect immigrants to assimilate, so we spend lots of our tax dollars ensuring Latin American immigrants never have to assimilate culturally or linguistically; my grandfather was spanked and sent home from school for speaking German and told not to return until he knows English; today, he would have gotten a scholarship
I love legal immigration, and I think one of the greatest things about America was the concept of the Melting Pot, which is probably today racist and national socialist. I always thought Texas did a particular good job of it. IMHO, too many extremists on the Left focus too much on our differences and the resulting Identity Politics. Practically, I just think it makes sense to work toward a single American culture as opposed to encouraging everyone to express and monetize our differences. Unfortunately, I guess that makes me a racist and national socialist, etc.