Speech #1090123061

But the reason I tell this story is that the height of emotion on that emotional evening was when everybody in the room paused. put their hands over their hearts. and said the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag and sang "The StarSpangled Banner." There were a lot of tears at that moment. The point of it is that in that room of people who were so proud of the country of Italy. from where they had come or their parents or grandparents had come. and there was no mistaking that they were proud to be from Italy. but they were prouder to be American. I mention that because this week we will begin to discuss immigration again. I believe we are missing the fundamental issue in the immigration debate. Of course. border security is important. Of course. a proper allocation of temporary students and temporary workers is important. There will be a lot of debate about what defines amnesty in any sort of legislation. But I believe the real underlying emotion in the immigration debate. the part that we are missing. is the question of how many new men and women can we absorb at one time in this country. How many men and women can come into this country and become Americans and accept the rights and responsibilities of citizenship? I believe what underlies a lot of the emotion. a lot of the concern about the debate we are having. is that Americans are afraid that we may be exceeding that limit.