Congressional Record

Narratives

Selected quotes from the Congressional Record illustrating how lawmakers have spoken about immigrant groups across U.S. history.

Cuban Hungarian Italian Japanese Naturalized Citizens Polish

Cuban

I once again serve notice on the Cuban exiles that I will not hesitate to speak out against what I consider to be their illegal course of action in this country In violation of their sanctuary and their rights of refuge, when they persist in attacking the foreign policy of the United States. It is about time to tell them that while they are in this country they must keep their mouths shut and stop their efforts to get us into war, or they must get out of this country.
#88 · 1963–65 WAYNE MORSE (D, OR)
A considerable percentage of the Cuban refugees in the United States are Batistaites and would not set up, if given the authority to do so, a constitutional, democratic form of government. Large numbers of them are more interested in regaining their corporeal and material holdings in Cuba, to carry on the bad economic policies that characterized the Batista regime.
#88 · 1963–65 WAYNE MORSE (D, OR)
The first Cubans hired there were very kind individuals and appeared most deserving and hard working. To the credit of the ethnic group they are loyal to their kind, but unfortunately this has caused an employment squeeze out of American citizens. We hear much about the black citizen being pushed out by this influx, but believe me it applies to both black and white. In contrast to the first immigrants the later freedom flight employees appear contemptuous and derisive of the American citizen.
#91 · 1969–71 Unknown (—)
Many fear these Cuban refugees resettling in heavily concentrated Cuban neighborhoods may not learn the English language and will not readily become assimilated into the U.S. culture. They will instead continue to operate within their own "barrio" subculture, which has suffered many economic and social problems.
#96 · 1979–81 F. SENSENBRENNER (R, WI)
Those who came early from Cuba are industrious. They set an example to the world how they could arrive in a new country penniless and rebuild their lives. They are hard workers with professional technical skills, and they moved up the economic ladder of success. Within two decades, these Cubans achieved more rapid socioeconomic success than probably any other immigrant group in the history of this country. But now 20 years later we face a massive problem of illegal entrants from other Third World countries.
#98 · 1983–85 BILL NELSON (D, FL)
We are dealing with terrorism today. Really? What were we dealing with when we accepted Cuban refugees? We were dealing with a Communist regime in Cuba that was friendly with the Soviet Union, which had nuclear weapons pointed at the United States, and we were accepting refugees from that country. I am glad we did. We were living in a very dangerous time when they were accepted, and on balance we found that history has proven that those refugees from Cuba have become an important part of the United States.
#114 · 2015–17 RICHARD DURBIN (D, IL)

Hungarian

Hungarians and Bulgarians have been imported. They do not assimilate with our people and never can any more than the Chinese. They interfere with our own citizens who labor, native and naturalized, and take from them their legitimate employment.
#48 · 1883–85 ANDREW CURTIN (D, PA)
The fact that a refugee was a member of the Hungarian Workers Party does not mean necessarily that he was or is a Communist, merely that he could not avoid being a member. By escaping Hungary and by freely admitting their pasts they show that they are against the present puppet Communist regime and according to my belief are entitled to asylum in the free democratic countries.
#85 · 1957–59 HUBERT HUMPHREY (D, MN)
Charity is a wonderful thing, but I submit that to carry charity to the extent of destroying our own economic foundation is really defeating the entire purpose of doing good. It Is with growing alarm that I have followed the Hungarian refugee situation. At its inception the refugee program was not a large undertaking and the number of refugees was a realistic figure. But that number has increased by leaps and bounds and the original program to open our doors to a few unfortunates has broadened to the point where we are almost engulfed by a tide of immigrants who, in my opinion, could scarcely qualify as bona fide "refugees".
#85 · 1957–59 Unknown (—)
I am opposed to changing the immigration laws to permit the Hungarian refugees to take asylum here at the United States expense. I believe this to be a planned program of the Communist Party to break down the McCarran-Walter Act. We are causing ourselves added grief by bringing Communist people to this country.
#85 · 1957–59 Unknown (—)
The truth of the matter is, and I add to it Chairman WALTERS statement as further proof, that we have opened the very doors of our country to thousands of Communists by our dogood policy toward the Hungarians. Many Communists have recently entered our country as refugees.
#85 · 1957–59 OLIN JOHNSTON (D, SC)
I do not recall ever having seen a Hungarian or a Pole or a Greek or a German or a Jew or a Lebanese or an Italian on welfare. I do not say that there have not been some on welfare, but I do not know of it. The early immigrants were poor and they were crowded into cities. They were discriminated against but they did not riot in the streets.
#91 · 1969–71 ROBERT BYRD (D, WV)
The early Hungarians were successful in adapting to meet the challenges of their age. During the early years of this century, large numbers of Hungarians migrated to the industrial centers of the American Midwest. Detroit, and especially its downriver communities benefited dramatically by this Influx of a people known for their honesty and work ethic. Hungarian immigrants played an Integral part in the Industrial growth of Michigan and the Nation.
#104 · 1995–97 Unknown (—)

Italian

We also claim that American capitalists and corporations have imported and shipped into this country, as so many cattle, large numbers of degraded, ignorant, brutal Italians and Hungarian laborers. Amercan citizens, men who pay our taxes and fight our battles, have been replaced by these foreign serfs. This is the class of persons, this the species of immigration with which this bill seeks to deal. These men do not come here of their own volltion. Many perhaps had never heard of America, they certainly know nothing of our institutions, our customs, or of the habits and characteristics of our people.
#48 · 1883–85 MARTIN FORAN (D, OH)
I find in three years a little over 80,000 Italians have been landed on our shores and of this number nearly 70,000 are males. During the same time I find a Hungarian immigration of 26,993 and of this number over 20,000 are males. I think these facts demonstrate conclusively that this is a forced and assisted immigration. If these people came here of their own volition, with the intent and purpose of making a home here, it is reasonable to suppose they would bring with them their wives and families. But the fact is they come in droves of males, and that their passage is paid by persons on this side is beyond doubt or question.
#48 · 1883–85 MARTIN FORAN (D, OH)
The constant influx of foreign labor is naturally and undeniably one of the chief causes of labor depression in this country at present. It is a well known fact that this importation of the lower classes of Huns, Slavs, and Italians has been the principal cause of violence and dissatisfaction. As every 100 immigrants necessarily force a corresponding number of United States citizens to either accept lower wages or go on a strike and join the already too large army of unemployed.
#54 · 1895–97 STANYARNE WILSON (D, SC)
In the last fiscal year the increase in immigration has been 208,303 a matter of 33 per cent, and this increase is nearly two thirds from Southern Europe. ... These people, according to the reports of the Commissioner of Immigration, are afflicted with loathsome and troublesome diseases. And therein lies the danger to our country which, in my judgment, is greater than that of the Mongolian. Because those who escape the inspection at Ellis Island and the other ports can spread these diseases among our people.
#58 · 1903–05 ROBERT ADAMS (R, PA)
They should not be allowed to come in faster than they can be assimilated, and the fact that in all our great cities they are segregated in Italian quarters and Jewish quarters and Slav and Hungarian quarters, maintaining the same habits and modes of living that they brought with them, shows they have been coming too fast. The facts show, too, that our laws have been too lax, admitting people of bad character. But while I believe that as a matter of prudence we should restrict the number. I believe also that we should scrutinize more carefully the character of those admitted.
#63 · 1913–15 WILLIS HULINGS (P, PA)
The time to take preventive measures against a disease is before it gets hold of you. I am calling on my country to wake up and use preventive measures now and keep Governor Smith out of the White House. Senators, if the Roman Catholics will do these bold and dangerous things now. with only 19 million Catholics out of 125 million Americans, what will they do under Roman Catholic rule in the United States when they can throw the doors of immigration open and smuggle others in on the side and flood this country in four years time with 20 million more Roman Catholics? Some Senators seem to be asleep on this question, but they are not themselves. A great many Americans are asleep. But they will get awake after a while, and I am trying to awaken them to things that are alarming and dangerous to our free institutions.
#70 · 1927–29 JAMES HEFLIN (D, AL)
The more than 12 million Italian-Americans have helped strengthen and build the United States. Their strong emphasis on the family and hard work provided an example for all Americans. Italian-Americans have built stable and cohesive neighborhoods which enhance our cities, and many aspects of Italian art, language, and cuisine have become an integral part of our evolving American culture. The Italian immigrants who came to this country worked hard and contributed much to earn the respect they command today. Italian-Americans as Lee Iaccoca, Mario Cuomo, and Geraldine Ferraro have made measurable contributions to our country.
#99 · 1985–87 PAUL SIMON (D, IL)

Japanese

You understand, Mr. Chairman, that our people are not objecting to the coming of Japanese of the educated classes. Our only objection is to the coming of the coolie class, the laborers, who not only compete with our white labor at home but drive them out, take their homes away from them of necessity, because they can not live on the wages the Japanese can thrive upon. Because they bring another civilization into our midst and degrade especially our rising generation.
#59 · 1905–07 EVERIS HAYES (R, CA)
I say this without the slightest intention of reflecting upon the Japanese people. I do not say that they are inferior to us, they are different, that is all. And the difference is so striking, such a radical difference, that the two peoples can never become one people or become amalgamated at all. The Asiatic and the American do not intermarry, will never intermarry, except in rare instances. We can never absorb them or take them into our social life.
#59 · 1905–07 JOHN GEARIN (D, OR)
I have known many persons who have lived with them for many years, and I have yet to find one who has ever made an intimate friend of one of them. Their hearts and consciences do not touch ours. We can not assimilate. It is impossible. And we of the Pacific coast who come in contact with the Orientals understand it better than you do.
#59 · 1905–07 FRED DUBOIS (D, ID)
The people of the East do not yet realize the importance of this matter because they have not come in contact to any extent with this strange people from across the water. California, being on the shores of the Pacific, seems to be a dumping ground for the undesirable from Asia. And I assure you the Hindu and the Japanese is a problem and the greatest plague we have in the West.
#63 · 1913–15 DENVER CHURCH (D, CA)
In California alone 100,000 Japanese constantly increasing by law evasion, surreptitious entry, and by a phenomenal birth rate, are repeating the story of Hawaii with the added peril of extensive land ownership and control. The best agricultural lands of the State are falling into their hands. The movement, I believe, is directed from Tokyo. Although not accompanied yet by the tramp of marching troops and the salvos of naval guns, it is none the less a real conquest. The Caucasian flees before the advancing Coolie.
#66 · 1919–21 JAMES PHELAN (D, CA)
The Japanese have always placed great value on argiculture. They had long experience and their skill, combined with rich American soil, produced the results. The majority of immigrants were from farming families in Japan and they naturally gravitated to the land. Agriculture became the Japanese Americans largest and most productive industry, and through it, they contributed greatly to the development of the West Coast in the United States.
#92 · 1971–73 GEORGE MILLER (D, CA)
The bill which I introduced is directed toward erasing one of the last vestiges of what has been called "the blackest page in American history." I am referring, of course, to the evacuation of 110,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry and their parents, who were uprooted from their homes along the west coast and Hawaii, deprived of most of their property, and imprisoned in what the Federal Government chose to call "relocation camps" or "internment centers," but which were in fact concentration camps, complete with barbed wire fences and armed guards.
#92 · 1971–73 SPARK MATSUNAGA (D, HI)
Because, if the parents can inculcate in their children a desire for America which is far beyond that of most Americans, and I think Congressman Chelf will bear me out that it is pretty tough to be drafted for the Army. But it is a lot more difficult to volunteer. But try volunteering under the same circumstances that so many Japanese Americans did, from barbedwire concentration camps. That is real conviction and faith in the American way. And to parents who can produce children like that, Mr. Chairman, I submit are true Americans and naturalization should be granted them.
#102 · 1991–93 Unknown (—)

Naturalized Citizens

Yet today there are persons from almost every civilized nation in the world who have come here, obtained the benefits of our naturalization laws, have left this country, and are now engaged in trade in foreign countries. By virtue of the cloak of American citizenship they escape all duty to the government where they reside, and they also escape any duty to this country by being absent, but are very quick to claim the protection of our Government when they may get into any trouble.
#43 · 1873–75 GODLOVE ORTH (R, IN)
There are citizens of the United States, I blush to admit, born under other flags but welcomed under our generous naturalization laws to the fall freedom and opportunity of America, who have poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national life, who have sought to bring the authority and good name of our Government into contempt, to destroy our industries wherever they thought it effective for their vindictive purposes to strike at them, and to debase our policies to the uses of foreign Intrigue.
#64 · 1915–17 WILLIAM BENNET (R, NY)
We can not disguise from ourselves the fact that we are not a homogeneous people, that there are 30M people of foreign birth of the first generation or naturalized citizens among us, and that a large number of them, at least 10M of that 30M if not in sympathy with our opponents yet must necessarily be to some extent affected by tile fact that they are of the blood of the central powers.
#65 · 1917–19 ALBERT FALL (R, NM)
Mr. Speaker, that there are at least a million or more people in this country today who hold certificates of citizenship but are not fit for citizenship and not entitled to citizenship. People who hold dual nationality and are practically agents of foreign governments. People who are in sympathy with foreign dictators and everything they stand for in the way of destruction of our democracy.
#76 · 1939–41 SAMUEL DICKSTEIN (D, NY)
The naturalization of aliens has increased by leaps and bounds within the past few years. It is my opinion that this has been encouraged, if not fostered, by the Justice Department. The concentration of large alien blocs in large cities presents not only an economic problem, as the relief records show, but a security problem for the American way of life.
#79 · 1945–47 Unknown (—)
I have today Introduced a bill which will not only revoke and set aside the citizenship of all those who have been found by the loyalty boards to be subversive and disloyal to this country. Folks down in my country have a way of disposing of vicious dogs who bite, let us apply that rule here by deportation. Because such action will rid us of all those who would seek to desecrate our flag and to destroy our American institutions of Christianity and democracy.
#80 · 1947–49 FRANK CHELF (D, KY)
Let me be clear, I support legal immigration and certainly celebrating ones heritage. However, the bilingual ballot provision has long kept new citizens from increasing their knowledge of our language and from fully integrating Into our society. Not only is it expensive to print ballots in a variety of different dialects and tongues, but it reinforces a fractious society.
#109 · 2005–07 VIRGINIA BROWN-WAITE (R, FL)
This instructs the Secretary of Homeland Security to develop and implement a strategy to make those naturalization ceremonies more important in the fabric of our everyday life, and establish an award for citizens who have been naturalized in the last 10 years who have made an outstanding contribution to the American Nation. We all know in our own experiences that new Americans are sometimes the best Americans. They make the largest contribution.
#110 · 2007–09 LAMAR ALEXANDER (R, TN)

Polish

The Middle Ages are beginning to show among us. That is, by reason of this vast immigration into this country of the people of this race we are being taken back, as it were, in our civilization to the period of the Middle Ages. ... In 21 rural counties of Minnesota the Polish women have borne on an average 7 children in the course of 14 years of married life.
#66 · 1919–21 THOMAS STERLING (R, SD)
Mr. Speaker, there are approximately 200 such cases that the Immigration Bureau has unearthed. They are all pretty much alike. The aliens are all here as a result of forged visas, forged birth certificates, or forged passports, and on account of the low quotas in Poland and Lithuania.
#75 · 1937–39 CLARENCE HANCOCK (R, NY)
in mid-April. one of my distinguished colleagues made his weekly radio reports in his area to his constituents ... He stated that the Polish-American minority group is the second lowest economic group and that they are "next to the lowest rung of the economic and social ladder against improvement of the lot of those on the lowest rung." He further indicated that the Polish-Americans, as latecoming non-Anglo-Saxon immigrants. have long been a struggling minority group which has only recently begun to achieve status in American society. ... I was deeply disturbed about these statements because they are an insult to a wonderful group of people.
#88 · 1963–65 HAROLD RYAN (D, MI)
If you happen to be from these countries, you get a preference. If you happen to have emigrated from some other country, you do not. If you are so unfortunate as to be from Poland. you are out of luck, you actually have to compete and win on the merits. But if you are from Pakistan. you are in the preferred group.
#105 · 1997–99 MITCH MCCONNELL (R, KY)