Comments by "Scott Charney" (@scottcharney1091) on "NYC migrant crisis worsens as shelters overflow | The Hill" video.

Asking for asylum is perfectly legal. This is the same old hostility we saw towards my ancestors, and probably yours as well.
2
@ofranciscofasho Most of the people in this situation came to this country by waiting in long lines at the Mexico-US border. Even if they didn't, it's legal to ask for asylum from within the country. Then, note the "probably" in my next sentence. If you're indigenous, and/or of Spanish descent in the Southwest (the border crossed them), your ancestors constituted an exception. The ancestors of a great many (and perhaps most) Americans, including most New Yorkers, arrived via Ellis Island during the late 19th/early 20th Centuries, when this country had pretty open migration for white people, until a nativist (and bigoted) backlash clamped down on it. This reaction had some very negative economic consequences in the years that followed.
1