Speech #1090131548

Canada. and Mexico. we have seen a tremendous growth in legal commerce and traffic across the border that has been enormously beneficial to all of those countries and created an awful lot of new jobs in my State. None of us want to jeopardize all of the benefits that attend to the fact that we do have a neighbor to our immediate south. Mexico. and the benefits that come from the cultural heritage and interaction. but the fact is that illegal immigration across the southern border of the United States has changed dramatically over the last few years because Mexico has been unable to control its southern border and. in fact. has become a sort of a land bridge into the United States and created a tremendous amount of concern. as it should. in a post9/ll world. We simply have to know who is coming into our country and why they are here. We can no longer assume their motives are simply benign. I have no doubt that in most instancesperhaps nearly all instancespeople come to this country for the same reason people have always come to America. and that is for a better life. We all understand that on a fundamentally human level. But we also understand that if we dont control our immigration system. if we dont control our borders. not only are we less secure. but literally our way of life may be subjected to a huge tsunami of humanity. people from all over the world who want to come to the United States. but if they dont do so in a controlled way. in a way that complies with our laws and allows us to regulate the flow in the pursuit of our national interest. that we will have lost something very important. and part of that will be the opportunity to provide the sort of prosperity we enjoy today to our children and our grandchildren. My hope is we will create a legal system of immigration that we will be able to regard with pride and that people who. as they always have. come here from all around the world through a legal system of immigration will become Americans. After all. becoming an American is an idea and an ideal. In other words. it doesnt matter where your country of origin is. where you were born.