The United States is often seen as a nation of immigrants, yet when talking about new groups entering the United States at various points in history hostile voices have also often emerged that called for an end to free immigration. Are the images that the American media and the President projects about present-day immigration in the United States of America something new? Or have we seen them before? This essay aims to find the answers for these questions by exploring the historical background of today’s discourse on immigration and by comparing the images used today to earlier waves. More specifically, using publications from the period of old and new immigration, I offer case studies of Irish, Chinese and Hungarian immigrants and their reception. By examining the newspaper and magazine articles published during the eras mentioned above and contrasting them with contemporary accounts on Mid-Eastern and Mexican immigration, we may conclude that attitudes dominating the American discourse (studying mainstream channels and social media sites alike) now, might have been present before also. Using these eras as the basis of my study, I will try to explore the differences and similarities in the reception of the immigrant groups, focusing on a discourse stressing negative features of immigrants and possible restrictions. Based on the comparison of certain features of former immigrants and today’s immigrant groups we may see a recurring pattern that encourages the somewhat hostile depiction of immigrants.