Speech #1040033123

Soon after arriving. my family and I were able to learn why this great country was seen around the world as the land of opportunity. After much hard work. my parents were able to settle into their new home and provide us children with the foundations for our future prosperity. That same dream of freedom and democracy that my parents had is still shared by the immigrants who arrive to this country today. Unfortunately. I am afraid that today. across the Nation and in some of our political leaders. there is a current which runs against this desire. The current. instead. runs in favor of severely restricting and even ending legal immigration. This movement is fed by the incorrect notion that immigrants are attracted to the United States because of our social programs and soon after arriving. they become a burden on the State. Mr. Speaker. the facts do not back this notion. The reality is that immigrants have made positive contributions to virtually all sectors of American life. In the economic spectrum especially. immigrants have clearly been prominent participants in the growth of the U.S. economy. For example. in my hometown of Miami. the number of businesses. large and small. owned by Cubans has grown from barely 900 in 1967. to over 28.000 in 1990. As a matter of fact. 18 percent of all small businesses are started by immigrants. This is the entrepreneurial spirit and personal initiative we in this country admire. and which the Founding Fathers of the United States tried to instill to future generations. Moreover. it has been estimated that legal immigrants pay a combined $70.3 billion a year in taxes while receiving $42.9 billion in services. Add to this the immense amount of human capital which legal immigrants bring to this country and there is little doubt that refugees have been an integral part of the U.S. economic success story. Mr. Speaker. it will be a sad day in U.S. history when we no longer look at immigration as positive for our Nations prosperity. No other country can share stories like that of Pablo Fonseca. a Cuban who arrived in the 1980 Mariel boatlift and just 2 years later had already graduated from MiamiDade Community College with high honors. He then proceeded to the University of Florida and later obtained his dentistry degree from the University of Indiana while winning numerous honors and awards.