There's been a huge imbalance from where we've been getting immigrants from. Prior to what 1960s we got a good chunk of them from europe, and immigrants were ad

There's been a huge imbalance from where we've been getting immigrants from. Prior to what 1960s we got a good chunk of them from europe, and immigrants were admitted because of skill. After that it was all about numbers from Mexico and a lot of 3rd world locales. And any immigration work IS a zero sum game, so the highly educated western cultured people and their intelligent offspring who were destined to go on to do great things in industry were not admitted nearly as often. The point of immigration is for future prosperity. And just because a quote on the Statue of Liberty makes it seem like the United States is supposed to be some kind of shelter for anyone the world regardless of background, doesn't mean that's the case.