Re: How do we decide who gets to be an American?

Description: "We cannot afford any more of the illiterates they are sending to our shores."

Immigration

Transcript: The history of our country is an immigrant history.  Only Native Americans – Indians – are allowed to believe that they are the one true Americans.  Everyone else – even maybe generations removed – but everyone else has an immigrant root to them.  And so . . .  This has always been, at the end of the day, a welcoming country; but it hasn’t always had a welcoming dialogue.  From the . . .  From the very beginnings of our country, Ben Franklin would say, “They’re sending a universe of people that we don’t want.”  I’m paraphrasing what he said.  And . . . or that would change the nation forever.  He was talking about the Germans.  The former governor of Massachusetts said, “We cannot afford any more of the illiterates they are sending to our shores.”  He was talking about the Irish.  In 1925, the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce in an official report said, “We need the Mexicans because of their bending and crouching habits which the Whites cannot attain themselves to – to pick our agricultural products.”  And we had the Chinese exclusionary principles.  And the list goes on and on.  So if we think about our history, our history has always been replete with immigration being . . . the subject of immigration being a lightning rod for controversy; but we also have probably the most incredible experiment in the history of mankind, which is America; which is bringing this incredible diversity across the spectrum of humankind, and bringing them to the United States, and making them such a very special place.  So I believe very strongly that yes, we have to protect our borders and secure them.  And yes, every country now has the right and responsibility to do that.  But also I believe that in a world that is so interdependent, more so than ever before, to believe that we can just put up walls – whether actually construct walls or in otherwise seal ourselves off from the rest of the world is such a mistake.  And so you know it’s about realizing, yes, security.  And there are many ways to do that successfully; but it’s also about at the end of the day making sure that we take advantage of the incredible human capital that comes to our country, and that gives us some of the greatest Americans we’ve had who have made some of the greatest inventions.  Under the debate going on these days, Einstein, Edison, General Petraeus and a whole host of other people . . . Colin Powell . . . they would have never made it.  They would never even have been . . . made it to this country.  They would have been born in this country because the immigration policies that some are advocating today would never have allowed them to come in.  And so ultimately in my mind, I think this is about taking our country and fulfilling its potential by the incredible universe of people that can be added to this great American experience.  So “no” doesn’t mean we can’t have everybody in the world come here, obviously.  And it doesn’t mean that we should just have open borders.  No, I don’t say that either.  But by the same token we should recognize that we have achieved some of our greatest moments by those who have come to this country with a dream, worked hard to fulfill that dream, and enriched America by doing so.  And I would hope that that great experiment which has been one of the greatest successes of mankind, that we just don’t snip it right off and understand that, in a view that ultimately it is the threat versus the opportunity. 

Question: How do we decide who can become an American?

Transcript: Those who, in my mind, believe in what America is all about, and are willing to work for it and fight for it; who believe in the very essence of our principles of democracy – the rule of law; who believe in opportunity, but also in hard work and sacrifice to make that opportunity a possibility for them individually; who believe that ultimately the promise of America is not to be horded by a few, but to be shared by all of us who are . . . who call America our home.  And so I believe it is those who believe in . . . and in their own lives from however humble to however powerful, live that American creed.  I believe those are the true Americans.

Question: And now in Spanish? 

Recorded on: 9/12/07