What Did You Do When You First Got Here?

It seems like I keep going back to History when I blog.  Not sure if that is because I like it, know about it, or a combo of all of thee above, but it seems natural to me to explore what we used to do, and compare it to what we do now.
I got an interesting e-mail stating that if the current immigrants would quit causing trouble, like being drug dealers and driving drunk, and be more like the immigrants of old who came as hard-working citizens and caused no trouble, then no one would have a problem with them.
Whoa boys-hold the can of whoop ass.
Maybe that is why I keep involving the badge of History-people throw it around like it is a shield of purity.
First off, immigrants have never been welcome in this country.  From the time the first white man set foot upon the shore and declared HIMSELF (yep, a man walked off the boat first) waayyyy better than the locals, there has been friction.  Can't say I blame the Native Americans.  You live here for thousands of years, a newcomer shows up, and you are the bad guy?  Boy does that sound like fun.
Once the Natives were tossed off the land, and the white guys proliferated like rabbits, future boat loads of people were greeted with suspicion at best, and derision and chains at it's worst.  The Irish came in the early part of the 1800's, only to be greeted with signs in the store windows denying Catholics entrance.  Eastern Europeans came in the late 1800's, only to be greeted with claims that they were dirty and basically shuttled to their own neighborhoods so the genteel public didn't really have to mix with them.  And I am just talking about Ellis Island here.  On the West Coast, despite a very low crime rate, any and all Asians were assumed opiate addicts and they never lost their "foreigner" status no matter how long they stayed in this country (internment camps during WWII prove this).  And the slaves stolen from Africa never stood a chance-they weren't even labeled human, but poor farmers in the South hated them just the same for being cheap labor.
Once here, immigrants faced the same challenges then, as they do today.   Lack of language kept them out of jobs, discrimination kept them from education.  The Irish took over local politics to get jobs for other Irish.  Good beginnings went wrong and we ended up with Tamany Hall and corruption in numerous states back east.  The Italians organized and established the Mafia in their new country-USA.  AL Capone is the most famous but there were others, either from Italy, or born to Italian immigrants, who created murder and chaos wherever they went.  The Jews basically started Hollywood, which depending on where you stand, can be the root of all evil, or a dream factory.  Okay, Hollywood and the Mafia aren't exactly the same on the Evil Scale, but back in the day, that kind of entertainment was considered more sinful then it is today.  Despite his star status, Clark Cable's dad never accepted his son's profession and it took Walt Disney years to convince his dad that Animation was a legitimate career choice.
So to ask a new immigrant to be like an old immigrant of yore, well that could be asking for trouble. 
So what should we ask the new immigrants?  How about coming here legally?  Thousands of Catholics, Jews, Asians-all groups traditionally discriminated against in this country-sold EVERYTHING they had to get passage to a country that they HOPED would be better.  Even as late as the 1950's, refuges out of Europe (my father-in-law's family) waited years in European refuge camps, and months on Ellis Island, before they were permitted to enter the USA.  Hell, depending on what decade you showed up, you couldn't stay if you couldn't prove you already had either A) proof of employment or B) a relative waiting to take care of you so you didn't need public assistance.  How are we racist today, to demand the same things?
The racist comments really bother me.  I don't think I am a racist for demanding immigrants be here legally.  I never even said what nationality I was talking about, since I mean all of them.  But it sure is a lot easier to cross an invisible line than it is to come thousands of miles by boat, or even airplane.  And I don't expect every single one of them to be paragons of virtue-the weren't in the past and they won't be in the future.  But if we are going to use History as our example, and everyone seems to be, how about demanding everyone be here legally?  Can I repeat that?  Everyone be here legally-that s it.  So simple.