America grew to be the most powerful country with open borders for most of its history 

It only closed them in 1921, because of the sentiment about too many Europeans coming in, along with introducing a bunch of other big government controls, the federal reserve and other welfare programs during this era.

Like almost every other "temporary measure" - it's still in place 100 years later 

If we believe in free markets, wouldn't this also include people? Or do we believe the government is competent enough to pick and choose people? 🤔

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Quota_Act