I dunno... 1790 Naturalization Act says only white people could become citizens. Sounds like they were friendly towards immigration from very specific countries.

Roosevelt's 1915 Americanism address also reveals this:

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/68152/68152-h/68152-h.htm

He says americanism "is a matter of the spirit and of the soul". In the very next paragraph, the so called "hyphenated americans" are condemned. This is perfectly reasonable.

However, note the examples used:

  German-Americans
  Irish-Americans
  English-Americans
  French-Americans
  Scandinavian-Americans
  Italian-Americans

There is even legal precedent for this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Bhagat_Singh_...

In 1923, the supreme court decided an indian was not eligible for citizenship because he was not white.

So arguably the US was a white ethnoatate from the very beginning. This stuff only really went away after the 1965 Hart-Celler Act, just over half a century ago.

I mean yes, obviously: the nation was founded with a giant genocide of native peoples.

I do imagine original white people were perhaps more keenly aware of the fact that this land was not originally theirs, and that other people should be let in and given a fair shot, even if they're poor.

I was merely making the argument that U.S. immigration policy has historically not been very classist (even if it was immensely racist), and not caring about the wealth of the incoming immigrants has worked out immensely well for the country over its lifespan.