The debate over immigration is as old as the United States itself. “Despite the fact that almost all of us are immigrants or descendants of immigrants,” writes immigration scholar George J. Borjas, “American history is characterized by a never-ending debate over when to pull the ladder in.” Each wave of new immigrants—Irish in the 1840s, Chinese in the 1870s, Italians at the turn of the twentieth century, Cubans in the 1960s, Southeast Asians in the 1970s, and others—has sparked controversy among Americans whose immigrant forebears arrived earlier.

Many of the historical complaints about immigration are similar to those voiced today. The People’s Party platform of 1882 proclaimed, “We condemn . . . the present system, which opens up our ports to the pauper and criminal classes of the world, and crowds out our wage...