When the rich figured out that our innate tribalism could be weaponized to distract us from their abuse, lawlessness, and greed.

So it turns out that the Statue of Liberty never represented the opinions of all Americans to begin with

I mean they blare "brown man make your life bad" 24/7 on state tv

Once we stopped needing cheap labor to build the railroads and mine ore and occupy native lands and farm crops and roof houses and paint walls and run the cash register at the gas station. Actually we still need immigrants for some of that in order to sustain the level of growth required to fund our retirement plans and do the jobs that we would rather not do for wages that we would rather not work for. It looks like Republicans are hoping to fuel that growth internally through reproduction among existing citizens (under the theory that kids will work for lower wages), while the democrats want to rely on immigrants. That's my theory anyway.

Whenever hate can be used to divide the masses. We must be divided lest we decide that a system that protects unethically gained wealth is unethical, even if it protects ethically gained wealth.

A large majority of 'anti-immigrant' people wouldn't care if say, a French person immigrated into their country. When these people say immigrants, most of the time they mean people of color.

Oh we've been fighting about this for centuries

The US is not anti immigrant.

There's a few greedy white people with lots of money who bought the media and the elections who are anti-immigrant.

Don't confuse policy with popular sentiment.

Because their lives are shit and they need somebody to blame.

The right will accept a boot on their face as long as they've got a face on which to rest their own boot.

General population was always anti immigrant but the ruling class was smart enough to understand they needed immigration to sustain the growth. What changed is that everyone got so dumb they don't know what's in their best interest anymore.

The "fuck you, I got mine" mindset aka FYIGM or getting first dibs.

That is, kicking out the ladder or destroying bridges or cutting off reach so that no one else is getting what one has achieved. Like, "I got first, you're getting nothing!"

People hated immigrants DURING the time period you're thinking of. And it wasn't always a skin color thing either, the Irish were one of the big targets for a long time.

Everything can be summarized in one Chinese idiom (成语):
过河拆桥

Aka: Crossing the river, then dismantle the bridge.
You're already crossed it, why care about the bridge, you wont be using it anymore.

America was never accommodating. The only thing immigrants had in common was hating black people.

Within a single generation. My grandfather showed up here at 11 from Romania. Never became a US citizen. His son, my father, is a rabid anti-immigrant racist Fox News fan boy. It's disgusting. Ironically my mother's great-great grandmother lost her birthright citizenship by marrying a Finnish immigrant before the 14th amendment existed and had to reapply for her own citizenship along with her husband because women's status was tied to the male head of household at the time, and now he rants about how birthright citizenship is wrong, despite being the exact person who benefits from it.

One way the wealthy and powerful stay that way is by constantly promoting the narrative that it's those poorer than you who are your enemy, not the bosses who starve you both.

Here's a wiki article about the topic, because it would be a bit much to list it all out in a lemmy comment:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nativism_in_United_States_politics#History

The TLDR is though that its existed since before the country even became independent.

Its called "ladder pulling".

Easier communication. Thousands of people each living far apart had no way to amplify each other. Immigrants were mostly centered around cities, thus the rural divide.

Yeah, sorry OP.

Racism has always and will always be a part of America's identity. I'd go so far as to say I think it's part of human nature, given how pervasive and common it's been throughout all of human history.

Mostly personal opinion incoming, with a few facts mixed in: I think the message on the Statue of Liberty was what the best of us at the time wanted the majority of us to be. I'm not sure we ever were.

First we get the Puritans, wiping out Native Americans, and trying to push their religion on everyone.

Then you get the slave trade, which is not immigration, but a large influx of a new population regardless, that was suddenly a problem for some when those people were free and citizens.

Then you get the Ellis Island years. Immigrants would get here, get sucked into "the American dream" of capitalism (which can help only very specific people), then want to close the door behind them. That way none of the new, filthy immigrants from (insert ethnic/religious group of your choice) could get the same advantages. But everyone kept coming.

Now, in power due to the way everything got handled (badly) after our civil war, you have a combination of the religious right, who want christianity to continue to be number one, and the racists, who want to make sure their daughter doesn't sleep with anyone who's the wrong color. They were always here, festering in the background, but now they've gained power, and they're louder than before.

The rest of us are still here, suffering, watching the country we were told was great reveal its ugliest population to everyone. I'm left wondering if we were ever a country who actually wanted immigrants. Or if it was merely aspirational.

When stupid and hateful took over all three branches of government and runs unopposed...