The majority of immigrants came to the USA in the hope of getting a well-paid job and becoming rich (or surviving at the very least). Therefore, regulation of immigrant influx also reflects the history of American use of these minorities for labor purposes.
For instance, Latinos were initially allowed to come to the USA because American agri-businesses in the south needed their cheap labor, favoring Latinos over Puerto Ricans and African Americans (Latinx Americans).
Asian Americans have historically been considered a hard-working minority model, serving as a good instrument for minimizing the impact of race on Black people’s failures. It is common to refer to the Asian American example of a disciplined, successful, and hard-working student or employee to explain that Blacks are lazy to succeed the same way.
However, hard work and success still cannot grant Asian Americans insider status, which is seen as a problem of an authoritarian Asian culture.
Though Latinos and Asian Americans are highly heterogeneous groups of people from many countries with distinct cultures, they are forcefully homogenized in the USA.
The tradition of pan-ethnic labeling of Asian Americans and Latinos is very old, pushing people different from the dominant white race into inferior categories for simplicity of domination. This process met no resistance because both categories of immigrants were deprived of all rights upon entry.
Thus, they had to adopt these labels to navigate the white spaces where all privileges are located, fitting the pan-ethnic stereotype to avoid being viewed as unknown and dangerous outsiders.