Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the passage of
the Dream Act, and I request my Democratic and Republican colleagues to
stand together to try and address this very important issue in our
country. The issue of undocumented immigrants has been plaguing this country
for almost 30 years now, going back to the 1980s, when people flowed
over in the thousands from El Salvador during the death squads and the
civil wars during that time. As the mayor of the city of Glen Cove back in the 1990s, we dealt
with this issue in my city, on one side people saying, ``Get those
people out of here,'' on the other side people saying, ``They are just
trying to live the American Dream like your father did.'' My father
emigrated from Italy. I am a first-generation American. ``They are just
trying to live the American Dream like your family did, trying to work
hard and live a better life here in this country.''
When dealing with these difficult questions, we have to rely on the
fundamental principles of this country, namely, that all men and women
are created equal--not all men and women with a green card or all men
and women with a passport, but all men and women are created equal and
are entitled to be treated with human respect and dignity. When looking at the DREAMers, we are talking about people who came to
this country under 17 years of age, who have lived a productive life,
who have either graduated from high school or received a GED and have
now either gone to college or are serving in the military or have been
working for the past 3 years and have no criminal background. Let's try and make this country fairer.
Keywords matched
emigrated undocumented green card immigrants