She came here as a student. and last year married a native Israeli now resident in the United States awaiting his citizenship. Because the Israeli quota is so small. she cannot remain here. She and her husband are faced with a cruel choice. either she must return to Israel and leave him here to await his citizenship. or her visa. or he must return to Israel with her and forfeit his chance for citizenship. But the bill we are now enacting into law would give her a visa almost immediately. But to my mind most important. we need immigration. The history of America. as Oscar Handlin has said. is the history of immigrants. Our strength is in variety. not sameness. Our unity is that of the living. not the graveyard. Our greatness we owe not to the bayonet. or to the atomic bomb. but to our capacity to attract and absorb the richness of diversitybecause to all men we attempt to secure the same measure of freedom and opportunity. Yet our immigration policy has lagged behind the promises of our tradition and the progress of the world. Trade crosses borders ever more freely. capital flows by the mere entering of figures on ledgers. ideas spirit from one country to another as fast as the printing press and the airplane can carry them. news. protests. approvals. anger and gratitude travel with the speed of light. But peoplethe people who make the goods. create the capital. think and live the ideasmove almost as slowly as if the airplane or even the railroad had never been invented.
Keywords matched
immigration immigrants visa