There was also a temp worker model back then. People would work 2-3 jobs, send their money home and retire after 10-12 years. Earning in dollars and spending in pesos / R$ was a good deal for everyone. Now we have a social services model. Everyone is an ‘undocumented American’ with full benefits and privileges. No amount of taxpayer largesse is too much to welcome our new fellow citizens. Only, being Catholic and in most senses conservative, their vote is far from predictable. To understate approaching irony, they’re also not intersectionalists. During 30 years as a cook I’d repeatedly tell academic and office worker friends that assuming immigrants would fall into line was hubris and would one day bite them in the ass. Lately, everyone is a lot less smug.