It’s true that foreign-born populations contributed mightily to New York City. But in the same way that it would make little sense for people born in New York to take credit for the labor and input of past generations of native New Yorkers, it is meaningless to credit today’s Latin American migrants for the sweat of nineteenth-century Irish ditchdiggers, or to base today’s policy on the socioeconomic conditions of 150 years ago.

It’s useful to recall that, until recently, immigrants came to America—“the land of opportunity”—expecting nothing except the chance to work hard. Backbreaking labor was available to those who could manage it for 60-hour weeks, with no minimum wage, no safety regulations or standards, no compensation for injury, and no pay if work were suspended due to inclement weather, which was common in the building trades. …

We obviously don’t want human beings living in crates and suffering infant mortality rates of 30 percent. But we need to remember that the immigrants of yesteryear, and not so long ago, came to a New York that extended no social entitlements and no regulatory protections. Many thrived.

[We don’t want to consign immigrants to squalor. However, we shouldn’t allow *illegal* immigrants to force us into subsidies either. That expectation has come from the last few decades of immigration policies at all levels of government , and ending that would go a long way toward ending the waves of illegal immigration flowing over our borders. — Ed]