Kenneth C. Davis, writer of the Don't Know Much About History series, starts his NYT op-ed with a provacative quote from a "prominent American" describing the flow of immigrants into the newly founded experiment-in-democracy, the United States:

Few of their children in the country learn English... The signs in our streets have inscriptions in both languages ... Unless the stream of their importation could be turned they will soon so outnumber us that all the advantages we have will not be able to preserve our language, and even our government will become precarious.

Sound familiar? This esteemed American, Davis then impishly reveals, was not a member of some fringe anti-immigrant party but none other than founding father Benjamin Franklin. And the immigrants he was so worried about were Germans arriving in Pennsylvania, whom Franklin believed to be the "most stupid of their nation". The Germans are coming, the Germans are coming!

Fast-forward to modern-day Amerika: in the wake of the recent failure to pass an immigration reform bill in the US Senate, Davis reminds us that "anti-immigrant sentiment is older than America itself". Indeed, surveys show that second, third and fourth generation immigrant families tend to make up some of hardiest "we were here first" xenophobes.

And it wasn't only the Germans, now the largest reported ancestry group in America, who had to face sustained resistance and outright hatred from "native" Americans. At various points in US history -- huddled masses yearning to be free or not -- the British (natch), Italians, French, Catholics (Irish), Africans (perpetually), Chinese, among others, all were targets of strident opposition and racial stereotyping. Now, Davis says, as America debates building a fence on the Mexican border, history repeats itself once again.

Let's hope on this 4th of July that Americans remember to embrace "freedom of" as much as they do "freedom from".