>>>Immigration to the U.S. changed long before you or I were born. Even in its heyday, Ellis Island did not let everyone in. Look up "HeartBreak Island" or "The Island of Tears." After the Immigration Act of 1924 only displaced persons and war refugees were allowed into the U.S. After that it became mostly a detention and deportation center.
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>>And the refugee ships of Jews from Europe in the 30s certainly did not see a lamp beside the Golden Door.
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>Which, of course, is why I support nearly unlimited immigration. If you're willing to work or have someone to support you and have no serious criminal record, you're welcome. No more of the racist quotas. (Whether they're racist today, they were certainly established with racist intent.)
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>Tamar

I'm pretty Ok with lots of immigration, very okay with work permits and the only way any of it makes sense is to have very tightly controlled borders. I have no problem with the racial makeup changing - ultimately it is only through blending that the race ( the *real* one - human ) gets stronger. I would like to see the cultural makeup change more slowly, or at least at a pace that does not create conflict that creates hostility. I'd like to think there are reasons people want to come here that have to do with the culture and it would be nice to think assimilation ( with unique cultural contribution ) would win out over Balkanized interest-groups manipulating newcomers to support "intermediary" leaders. ( of course that is much more likely when newcomers are made to feel welcome and given opportunities to assimilate linguistically and culturally so they don't fell isolated and dependent on such "leaders" )

I don't see a problem with setting some kind of standards on immigration, but they certainly shouldn't be racially or religiously driven. Ironic when you think that some of the greatest prejudices in US immigration policy would have tried to exclude some of our most productive communities ( Chinese, Jews, Italians, Irish, Poles etc etc )