Speech #1140012832

I think that is the most important point that we should take into consideration. "From many. there is one" is the motto that this Nation holds dear to itself. that all of us come here. and that by being here. we began to form this Union of ours. integrating the values. the aspirations. the rule of law. and the history of that Nation in making it one. To continue to pretend that we can have a twotiered society without consequences to the economy and the social wellbeing of this Nation is wrong. It is wrong for very humane and just reasons. but it is profoundly wrong on what this Nation is and what I learned and all of us have learned this Nation is and will continue to be: a nation founded on the rule of law. a nation founded by immigrants. I also want to sayand I will say it as delicately and as carefully as I canthat the issue of immigration reform to many people who are citizensmaybe second and third generation whose original folks were immigrants who happened to be of color. who happened to come from a country of origin where the language and the culture were different from the mainstream of this Nation. whom it integrated fully and who have contributed to the defense and the wellbeing of this Nationthey feel that the constant drumbeat of accusation. of "it is us versus them." of division. that this issue not only is an issue of immigration reform for the people who need it and for the Nation that needs it. but it is also an issue of civil rights. that no one should be profiled into a situation where they are less than someone else because of where their parents came from. because of the language that they spoke or the country that they came from or the color of their skin. That is not America. And we continue to pander to those emotions. fear. as a means to score political points and possibly win an election here and there. That we do it at our own peril. So for many generations of Americans that have served this country. the issue of immigration strikes us as an issue about our rights. our presence. our history. and our ability to proudly stand with anyone else and be as American as the next person. With that. I thank the gentlewoman from New Jersey for organizing this. and I thank her for the opportunity that she has granted me to be able to state some things that sometimes the confines of our debates here dont allow us to.