Tons of people hated the Irish for immigrating to the US. There are plenty of example of the hatred of Italians and Irish in the turn of the last century. Watch Gangs of New York for a taste of the bigotry.

Irish and Italians are lumped into White and now we have comments like yours. Most of the people in the US are from Europe so of course they favored family, friends, and countrymen coming over.