What kind of people would come here and perhaps make it worse? We have been engaged in this debate from the earliest days of this country. There have been bitter chapters in this debatechapters of discrimination and prejudice against those who arrived. glorious chapters when immigrants came and literally gave life to a country in its infancy. I said on the floor before. and I think at this moment it bears repeating. I am one of those fortunate few. My grandmother and grandfather immigrated to this country. They brought my mother. a 2yearold infant. from Lithuania and settled in East St. Louis. IL. They lived an immigrant life. a spartan existence. They managed to survive. They managed to prosper and raise a family. And the son of an immigrant mother now stands as the 47th Senator in the history of the State of Illinois. I am so proud of that. not for myself but for the fact that it says a lot of good things about America and about immigration. This debate evoked a lot of emotional responses. I say to my friend Senator SALAZAR from Colorado. who is truly one of the most extraordinary Senatorshe brings his heart to this debatewhen he stands before us on issues such as the official language of America and tells what it was like to be raised in a family that spoke Spanish and to be faced with discrimination because of that heritage. it touches my heart.
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immigrants immigrated immigrant immigration