There are a million people who want to come here from just one country.
Sorry, can't assimilate that many.
But they're escaping terrible hardships.
Not the same as political persecution, is it?
What about all that "give us your tired, your poor" stuff?
But these people are tired and poor and not like us. They're uneducated, and they talk funny. What can they add to our society?
Just a reminder that in some ways history doesn't change much:
Up until the mid-nineteenth century, most Irish immigrants in America were members of the Protestant middle class. When the Great Potato Famine hit Ireland in 1845, close to a million poor, uneducated, Catholic Irish began to pour into America to escape starvation. Despised for their religious beliefs and funny accents by the American Protestant majority, the immigrants had trouble finding even menial jobs.
Happy St. Patrick's Day! Once a year, a "g
