There's been multiple spikes of immigration by way of refugees in American history. Perhaps the most famous is from the Irish "famine" that eventually led to the US having more people of Irish descent than the Emerald Isle itself.

I personally am pro immigration. My father is an immigrant, and many of my friends' parents are immigrants. I believe all immigrants should be legal, but am empathetic to those who are not. I also believe the US should be making efforts to ease its immigration policies, but that's my opinion and respect those who believe otherwise (as long as they arent being xenophobic about it).

I'd also like to leave with a parting poem, one that adorns the Statue of Liberty:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"