In article nk.net,
Rudy Canoza wrote:


I think what the original poster meant is that waves of
immigrants in the past were able to come to the United
States because there were no laws restricting
immigration - at least, not laws they recognized as
legitimate.

Your point is correct: they were not "illegal
immigrants" because they weren't violating any law,
since such a law didn't exist. It's obviously
impossible to say what immigration patterns and numbers
would have been had there been such laws, since we
can't retroactively conduct experiments.

Of course it did. There have been limits on immigration for most of
the history of the US and quotas since before the Big Migration from
Europe. The Immigration Act of 1891 established an Office of the
Superintendent of Immigration within the Treasury Department. By 1921
the quota system had been established. I mean, what else was Ellis
Island but to process those who came in.