AMERICA HAS AN IMMIGRATION PROBLEM. We’re not sure precisely what it is, or how to fix it, or if the cure would be worse than the disease. And even if we knew those answers, we’re far from reaching a consensus that might, someday, when the political climate is just right, move us toward taking action. But admitting you have a problem is the first step toward recovery. So we’ve got that going for us.

If you study the numbers charting American immigration, you see a pointillist rendering of modern history. The number of immigrants increased steadily from 1820 until 1855. As our Civil War loomed, immigration dwindled from 427,833 in 1854 to 91,918 at the outbreak of hostilities in 1861. After the war, immigration zoomed ahead, peaking between 1901 and 1910, when 8.8 million immigrants arrived. In 1914, 1.2 million immigrants came to America, seeking an escape before Europe’s Great War broke out. The next year, that number fell by 75 percent.