The Struggle for Cultural Identity

"The familiar saying is right: the USA has always been a nation of immigrants. What the saying leaves out – in addition to the fact that there were people already here to greet the immigrants – is that our idea of the immigrant has always been racialized, and in ways that explicitly shaped public policy for most of the nation’s history."
Taylor, Paul C. (2013-04-17). Race: A Philosophical Introduction (Kindle Locations 4449-4452). Wiley. Kindle Edition.

Speaking as someone who actually paid attention in history class as a boy and also someone who has seen first hand the notorious anti-immigration racism of the midwest and south, it doesn't seem to me that "the USA has always been a nation of immigrants" is a familiar enough saying... let alone one that is understood. That being said, I think it goes without saying that immigration has almost always been a racialized issue, from the Italians to the Irish, Japanese to Mexicans, the United States brief history is rife with racially based exclusionary measures. What the above quote got me thinking about, is why? To be more specific, why has a nation of immigrants gone to such extreme lengths to curb further immigration? what is the cause of this hypocrisy? My first guess is that it is directly connected to the Americans struggle to find a national identity. Many Americans whose families have been in the states for several generations have lost touch with their ancestral roots, in turn they have attached themselves to the newer and more obscure American identity. I say obscure because America is so massive and has so many sub cultures within it that unity is rarely found, and when it is, say in the celebration of Americans independence, many still don't feel any strong emotional attachment to the celebration because their ancestors didn't contribute to the cause. A possible consequence of this is that the Americans whose families have been in the country for multiple generations, feel a need to over compensate for the lack of national pride and unity. They have no lingering culture to fall back on and so the go to great lengths to formulate a new one, and like must cultures, they subsequently reject change. To them, the old America is this utopian legend, where jobs, gold, and opportunities fell from the Christian heavens and the white man reigned supreme. So when they see the economy tanking, jobs drying up, and American pride vanishing, they point their fingers at everyone except themselves. This makes sense for two reasons, they need a scapegoat, and they don't want to tarnish the nations name by taking responsibly. The result is that the unsuspecting, low class, immigrant is deemed the destroyer, not the model of the American dream, as if those who got here first are the only ones entitled to it. This is much easier then blaming big business for shipping jobs over seas, or blaming crime and lack of cultural assimilation on racial projects and profoundly underfunded schools/communities. More than anything, the Americans racialized treatment of immigration is a prime example of nearly every American stereotype, ignorance, fear, laziness, arrogance, and of course, unnecessary use of force.