Obama on immigration

I just heard a bit of Obama's speech touting comprehensive immigration reform.  In the part I heard, he discussed the struggle that Jewish immigrants had when they came to America in large numbers just over a century ago.   Very poetic and lyrical words....but he forgot to mention that the vast majority of immigrants --  millions of them -- came here in an orderly way via Ellis Island. 
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Even as he cites the experience, Obama neglects the very thing that made that wave of immigration from the 1890s to the 1950s a boon to America.  (First of all, it was legal.)  Apparently the lessons of history are lost on him.