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Thanks for sharing your story but in each of your examples, you made the effort to learn the language to reach out to the "natives". As such, they were welcoming and accepting of you (the Mexican example is especially poignant).
However, I interpret the OP's objections as those coming here (such as yourself) and REFUSE to even learn the language and fail to reach out to the "natives". This point I feel is the one that gets lost in all the rhetoric of how anti-immigrant or ignorant blah-blah we American allegedly are.
I don't think people are as anti-immigrant as a vocal few are making things out to be. It's more subtle and complex than that. Rather, people are against ILLEGAL immigration and cultural isolationism of other immigrants (groups).
In my opinion, that is a fair critique.
As an aside, if in your heart you feel closer to Mexicans, than why not get Mexican citizenship instead? (not picking on you per se, but just putting that out there for some stimulation/stirring the pot).
The so-called immigration debate is a lot more complicated than a simple binary of so-called "anti-immigration bigots who are actually anti-latino" versus "enlightened welcoming open-minded immigrantphiles".
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