Unchecked immigration is more about demographic change for political power. No one gives a rats ass if they work or don't work. They just have to vote for democrats.
The middle class is just collateral damage.
That's why Trump is so hated by progressives. The actuaries predicted that by 2050 the European white majority will be
the minority & Trump has put a monkey wrench into the liberal wet dream of a 'borderless world'
True I doubt there was any curb on immigration until the 1920's Reed-Johnson Act which limited the number of immigrants
allowed entry into the United States through a national origins quota. The quota provided immigration visas to two percent
of the total number of people of each nationality in the United States as of the 1890 national census.
It was at that time that German was the 2nd most spoken language in the country & when America had just surpassed
Great Britain as the most powerful economy in the world & the act of 1924 helped keep the USA on an even keel until
Lyndon Johnson & his partner in crime Ted Kennedy changed immigration policy in 1965.
Cumulative number of living non-native citizens 1860 Time of Civil War
Northern Europe 2,271,661
Ireland 1,611,304
Germany 1,276,075
Canada 249,970
France 109,870
Cumulative number of living non-native citizens 2000
Mexico 9,177,487
Caribbean 2,953,066
India 1,022,552
China 988,857
Africa 881,300
Today this country has become a hodge pod of peoples of every creed & color on earth,
diversity on steroids, united not any more, languages spoken:
1 English 231,122,908
2 Spanish 37,458,470
3 Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin, 2,896,766
4 French and French Creole 2,047,467
5 Tagalog 1,613,346
6 Vietnamese 1,399,936
7 Korean 1,117,343
8 German 1,063,773
9 Arabic 924,374
10 Russian 879,434
11 Italian 708,966
12 Portuguese 693,469
13 Hindi 643,337
14 Polish 580,153
15 Japanese 449,475
16 Urdu 397,502
17 Persian 391,113
18 Gujarati 373,253
19 Greek 304,932
20 Bengali 257,740
21 Panjabi 253,740
22 Telugu 247,760