Today. MEL MARTINEZ was not only a Cabinet Secretary but was elected by the people of Florida to serve as their Senator. This is the immigrant story. We are a great people because that story has been repeated millions of times over many generations. As in the past. todays immigrants are tomorrows Americans. regardless of where they came from or how they got here. They and their children and grandchildren will contribute anew to our national life. I have mentioned that from my office in the JFK Building in Boston. I can look out the window and see the pier where my greatgrandparents landed from Ireland in 1848--and the stairs they walked up too. The immigrants called them the "golden stairs" because it offered the golden hope of opportunity for them. I can look out the window and see those same eight stairs where all of them walked up and entered Boston to begin their lives and begin earning their American citizenship. It is something that is not in our remote past. Every American knows how our immigration system is currently broken. It falls short of meeting our security needs and strengthening our economy. upholding our valuesand what we have tried in the past no longer works today. We have heard already the issueWell. we already had amnesty in 1986. and it didnt help us because we didnt have enforcement.
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