Speech #1050075445

Hispanic communityand we ought to look at that spirit as an inspiration to ensure that America remains the kind of place people would want to come to. Theres one area of law Im working on that is especially important in this context. Im talking about the attempts to change Americas immigration law and make it more restrictive. I read one article in which advocates of restriction repeatedly called new Americans "aliens"-not "immigrants" but "aliens." as if they were a different kind of people from us. who come from someplace as strange as outer space. I call these people something else. I call them Americans. Now. we all know that theres nothing new about antiimmigrant movements. Weve had them again and again. throughout American history. But we have established a proud tradition in this country of overcoming them. of resisting the temptation to turn inward to ourselvesof welcoming new people and new ideas. and choosing hope over fear. When Franklin Roosevelt reminded America that even those who came over on the Mayflower were immigrantswhen John F. Kennedy wrote a book called "A Nation of Immigrants"-when Ronald Reagan moved .the Nation with stories about how the light from Libertys torch was keeping hope alive for millions of people in oppressed countriesthey were expressing something truly fundamental about what it means to be an American. And make no mistake about itthat same spirit is still alive and well in todays America. Ohioans of Hispanic ancestry have helped build the Buckeye State into an economic and cultural powerhouse.