Our former long term New Mexico senator, Pete Domenici, was also the son of an illegal immigrant. His mother was without documentation as a child during WWII but did eventually become naturalized. His father was an American citizen.
That was then. This is now. Circumstances were very different in the 1930's and 40's than they are now. We didn't have tens of millions of illegals who did NOT want to adopt the uniquely American culture then. Even during Jimmy Carter and Reagan's terms of office, there were only three million illegals in the USA.
But each subsequent amnesty erected a bigger flashing neon sign over America: "ya'll come and if you lay low for just a little while, they'll let you stay." And our P.C. insanity of providing free food, housing, healthcare, and education for their kids as well as sympathizers who think they should not be required to learn English or respect our flag but should be allowed to fly their own national flag sure isn't helping discourage anybody from coming here.