Yeah, well there wasn't any law preventing the Irish from emigrating to the U.S.
More importantly, the Irish spoke English, we had plenty of room for them at the time, and since there was no Welfare state adding population didn't create a burden on legal-resident taxpayers.
The "get in line" thing sounds a lot like "amnesty".....NO GO!
Just WHAT has Vincente Fox "got" on GW that makes our President so weak on illegal immigration? Hmmm? (Just MO).
Slaves were too valuable to be used in building the C&O Canal in MD. They used Irish because they were expendable.
Those who died were scratched off and others "hired". There were no immigration requirements to meet at the time; Europe was off loading its excess as well as its trash.
At least they weren't on the dole created by politicians digging into the pocketbooks of others.