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There was no such thing as illegal immigration until around 1880. It started with bans on Chinese immigrant labor, primarily to stop exploitation of them as cheap and abused labor. Wow....that sure sounds familar.
Ellis Island was the first real attempt to document incoming aliens from Europe, and that didn't open until 1892, and it was a rubber stamp operation. Everyone got in. It was just an attempt to keep track of who was.
Shortly after that the same thing was done along the southern borders of the US territories.
It was not until a series of laws passed starting in 1917 that there was any such thing a illegal immigration. That's only 90 years.
Based on that, I would suspect that most - certainly not all - of those who oppose illegal immigration are here legally.
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