For the first 210 years of the Republic, American entrepreneurs had the right to hire whomever they pleased, irrespective of whether that new employee came from across the street, the ocean, or the other side of Rio Grande. That changed in 1986 when the government stepped in. Now, American employers can hire a foreigner only after obtaining a hard-to-get government permission.
We have laws limiting immigration because lazy Americans hope that with fewer immigrants, they can earn more when working less. It does not work that way in the global economy. Due to our immigration laws, many good, well-paying jobs emigrated, and Americans are left with jobs that cannot go abroad, at Walmart and McDonald’s. Without immigrants coming, people who fear the competition of immigrants willing to work harder for less lose the most.
The very concept of our immigration laws is that instead of securing equal freedom to pursue happiness for all American citizens, the government guarantees happiness for less entrepreneurial citizens at the cost of limiting the freedoms of the most entrepreneurial among us. Is this constitutional? I doubt.