[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 45 (Monday, April 24, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3411-S3414]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IMMIGRATION REFORM
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, 14 years ago, when I was the U.S.
Secretary of Education, I received an invitation to the annual Italian-
American dinner in Washington, DC. To tell the truth, I really didn't
want to go because there are lots of dinners in Washington, DC, and the
hours were long when I was working in the President's Cabinet. I wanted
to stay home with my wife and children. But that year, 1992, the dinner
was in honor of my law school roommate, Paul Tagliabue, who is known to
most Americans as the commissioner of the National Football League and
the person who likely will be presiding over his last NFL draft this
weekend.
So I decided I would go to this one more long, I expected,
Washington, DC, dinner in honor of my friend Paul Tagliabue. When I got
there, the place was bursting with enthusiasm. Nobody could have
doubted that it was the Italian-American dinner. Italian-ness was
everywhere. Stallone was there, Pelosi was there, Justice Scalia was
there and, of course, the National Football League commissioner Paul
Tagliabue was there. It was wonderful, and I was delighted that I went.
The room was filled with emotion. But the reason I tell this story is
that the height of emotion on that emotional evening was when everybody
in the room paused, put their hands over their hearts, and said the
Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag and sang ``The Star-Spangled
Banner.'' There were a lot of tears at that moment. The point of it is
that in that room of people who were so proud of the country of Italy,
from where they had come or their parents or grandparents had come, and
there was no mistaking that they were proud to be from Italy, but they
were prouder to be American.
I mention that because this week we will begin to discuss immigration
again. I believe we are missing the fundamental issue in the
immigration debate. Of course, border security is important. Of course,
a proper allocation of temporary students and temporary workers is
important. There will be a lot of debate about what defines amnesty in
any sort of legislation. But I believe the real underlying emotion in
the immigration debate, the part that we are missing, is the question
of how many new men and women can we absorb at one time in this
country. How many men and women can come into this country and become
Americans and accept the rights and responsibilities of citizenship? I
believe what underlies a lot of the emotion, a lot of the concern about
the debate we are having, is that Americans are afraid that we may be
exceeding that limit. They want to make certain that almost all of
those who come to live here expect sooner or later to become Americans,
to accept the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.
My rough calculation is that, in a country of about 300 million
people who live in the United States of America today, about 10 percent
of us are not citizens of the United States.
We have about 570,000 students from other countries. They are welcome
here. They help improve our standard of living while they are working
here, and when they go home, they usually spread our values better than
any foreign aid we have ever passed.
We have about 500,000 temporary workers of one kind or another who
are important to our free market system.
We have 11.6 million permanent legal residents, people with so-called
green cards, some of whom are on their way to becoming citizens. But an
increasing number of them are not electing to become citizens of the
United States.
Then we have 10 million or 12 million people who are illegally here.
They are here mostly to work. Some estimates are that they comprise
about 5 percent of our workforce.
So, all in all, that is probably more or less 30 million people of
the 300 million of us who live here who are not citizens of the United
States, and there are another 2 or 3 percent of us who are dual
citizens, citizens of the United States and of another country.
An important part of this debate is, how many is too many?
We know the benefits of immigration in the United States of America.
We call ourselves a nation of immigrants, and we say that proudly. That
spunk, bravery, and courage that caused people to come and still come
to our country has defined our character. No other country in the world
believes anything is possible, that anyone of any background can rise
to the top.
My grandfather, who was a railroad engineer, used to say: Aim for the
top, there is more room there. Most people think that is a silly
statement. But we don't. That is an essential part of the American
character. A lot of it comes from being a nation of immigrants. The
diversity that comes into our country because of immigration makes our
country more interesting. I once heard Robert Mondavi, the famous
California winemaker, say that--and excuse me in Iowa for saying this--
20 years ago we could not get a good meal in Des Moines, and into Des
Moines came people from different cultures and different countries, and
they brought their own recipes. And what makes the food so good today
in Des Moines, said Mr. Mondavi, is not that one was an Indian dish or
a Sri Lankan dish or a French dish or a Colombian dish, but they mixed
it together and created an American cuisine.
The diversity brought to us by people regularly coming to our country
makes a difference. And then the patriotism that comes from those who
become new citizens enriches us. Our most patriotic citizens are often
those who have just become citizens, reminding those of us
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who have been here, as our family has for seven, eight, nine
generations, that it is nothing to be taken for granted. As our
population growth reduces in this country, and in our free market
system as we produce a disproportionate number of the new jobs here, we
find new workers coming into our country, whether they are skilled
workers helping to win new jobs or win Nobel Prizes or whether they are
unskilled workers who add to our free market system.
We know the value of immigration to the United States. We know two
other things as well. One is that those who come here expect to come to
a nation that honors the rule of law. In many cases, immigrants have
come here fleeing a nation that didn't have rule of law, where you
might be ordered to this place by the whim of a dictator or a potentate
or someone who was above the law. That is what most people are fleeing
from--nations and countries without the rule of law. It is important
that we honor the rule of law here.
New Americans, new people who come to live here understand very well
that they have the freedom to drive across State lines, but they cannot
run a stop sign. They have the freedom to make contracts with whom they
please, but they have to keep the contract. They have a second
amendment right to own a gun, but they cannot shoot anybody. This is a
nation that honors the rule of law, and new immigrants and those who
are already here understand that.
The other thing is that new people coming into our country for the
most part understand as well as we do, those of us who are already
here, that we are a nation based upon an idea. We are not a tribe. We
are not a racial culture. Our ancestry isn't what's most important to
us. What matters to us most is the motto that is engraved in stone
above the Presiding Officer's desk, ``E Pluribus Unum''--from many,
one. This country's most magnificent accomplishment is that we have
taken people from all different parts of the world and turned this into
one Nation. We have done this by insisting that new citizens become
Americans.
Becoming American--those two words have always been serious business
in this country. In Valley Forge in 1778, as I mentioned on this floor
several times, George Washington and his officers took an oath whereby
they renounced their allegiance to their former ruler--King George
III--and pledged their allegiance to this new country. Ever since
then--since 1795 at least--the oath of allegiance that new citizens
have taken has been essentially the oath of allegiance that George
Washington and his officers took. They didn't renounce--in the case of
those at the Italian-American dinner--their Italianess; they are proud
of that. But they renounce loyalty to the Italian government and pledge
allegiance to this country. They are clear about that, and we have been
clear about that for more than 200 years.
When we have large numbers of new people coming into our country, as
we did just 100 years ago, which was the last time we had such a large
percentage of foreign-born people living in the United States, we went
to great efforts to try to help them become Americans. Albert Shanker,
the late president of the American Federation of Teachers, once said in
a meeting in Rochester, which I attended, that the common school, our
public school, was created primarily for the purpose of helping
immigrant children learn the three Rs--reading, writing, and
arithmetic--and what it meant to be an American, with the hope they
would go home and teach their parents. The common school was an
``Americanizing'' institution. So was Ford Motor Company 100 years ago,
as were many businesses.
Robert Putnam, in his book ``Bowling Alone,'' talked about how in
this country civic associations such as the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts,
Boys and Girls Club, and Rotary Club were all set up with the idea of
reminding ourselves--those who are already here--to help new people
coming into our country learn what it means to become an American, to
learn our common language, learn our history, and to learn the
principles that unite us as a country.
Other countries now are looking at the American experience and
wishing they had some of it. Last year, France and England experienced
great difficulties with the bombing in the London subways and the riots
in France. What was it about? It was about people who had come from
other countries to live in France and England and who didn't feel part
of the country. They wanted to feel French; they wanted to feel
English. People are starting to think how do you become French or
English or German, when 5 or 6 years ago you had to be the son or
daughter of a German in order to be a German. How do you become
Japanese or Chinese? That is a foreign concept in most countries. It is
hard to become German or French or Japanese.
But to become a citizen of the United States, you must become an
American. We don't want to lose that. That should be the central focus
of any immigration debate on the floor of the Senate.
I was in Rome last week, and I visited with our Ambassador to Rome,
who is the grandson of an Italian immigrant. He said they have formed a
council there in Italy to try to deal with the problem of how do you
become Italian because Italy needs more people. It has a population of
58 million, the second lowest birth rate in Europe, the largest
percentage of elderly, 2.9 million legal immigrants, over 500,000
illegal immigrants, increasingly Muslim. A large number of Muslims--1.5
million--who live there don't feel they are a part of Italy. If Italy
doesn't have people coming from other countries, the number of people
who live in Italy will go down and down and so will their economy. They
formed a council in Italy. Four people who were Muslims and who live in
Italy were sent to the United States, and one who came back--a woman
from Algeria who came to Italy when she was 14 and is now 30--said to
our Ambassador to Italy: For the first time, I feel Italian. He asked
why. She said: When I went to America, the Muslims I met there felt
American. They may be against the war in Iraq, but they all thought of
themselves first as Americans.
That is a concept which we don't dare lose. All of us know that the
importance of becoming American has been gradually diminishing in our
culture, especially since the 1960s. Our schools don't teach U.S.
History in the way they once did and in the way they should. In fact,
the lowest score our high school seniors have on national tests is not
in math, not in science, it is in U.S. History. Our colleges don't
require a course in U.S. History. Our colleges of education don't turn
out very many teachers of U.S. History.
In an age of globalization, some people say, well, nationality
doesn't really make much difference.
Increasingly, official business in States and counties is conducted
in more than our common language, English. Even some of our political
leaders extol diversity over unity. They extol the pluribus over the
unum.
Make no mistake, diversity is important to the United States. It is a
great advantage to us, but diversity is not our greatest strength.
Jerusalem is diverse. Iraq is diverse. The Balkans are diverse. Our
most magnificent accomplishment and greatest strength, and one we
should not forget during this debate, is that we have taken all this
diversity and formed it into one nation.
That is why I was pleased to see that the Senate adopted, before the
immigration bill got off track, an amendment I proposed with a number
of other Senators that would help prospective citizens become
Americans. It would do it in a number of ways.
In the first place, it would raise to the level of law George
Washington's oath, slightly rewritten, the same oath that a half
million to a million new citizens have taken every year, an oath that
recognizes that someone has waited that 5 years, learned English to an
eighth-grade level, passed a test in our history, demonstrated their
good character, and said: I foreswear allegiance from where I came, and
I pledge allegiance to the United States.
The amendment, which passed the Senate overwhelmingly, would also
create grants to prospective citizens who needed help learning English.
It would reduce from 5 years to 4 years the amount of time you need to
wait to become a citizen if you were fluent in English. That is a level
higher than eighth grade. It would create a foundation to help with
grants to encourage the teaching of civics and English in the same way
that we did throughout
[[Page S3413]]
civic organizations 100 years ago in this country.
In addition, we should also look carefully at other parts of what we
do in our Government. We should have more support for English as a
second language in the schools. We should not have waiting lines of
adults who want to learn English in this country, our common language.
People want to learn it. We should help them.
We should have more summer academies for outstanding teachers and
students of American history and civics. This Congress approved that
for the first time last year. We will have two this summer. We should
have many more. And we should do more teaching through the traditional
American history program that Senator Byrd and others put into the No
Child Left Behind Act.
Those things do cost money, but in a $2.6 trillion budget, surely we
can find something to take out so we can put those things in because
nothing, I submit, is more important than making sure our children know
what it means to be an American and to know that our new citizens do as
well.
I am here today to remind myself and my colleagues of that story of
my visit to the Italian-American dinner 14 years ago. I wish every
Member of the Senate could have been there. I wish they could have seen
the pride in the Italian-ness of all there to honor Paul Tagliabue,
Justice Scalia, now the ranking Democrat in the House Nancy Pelosi, and
Sylvester Stallone. It is important to be reminded that in that room,
the greatest emotion was for the Pledge of Allegiance to the United
States of America. They may be proud of where they came from, but they
are prouder of where they have come.
I will ask unanimous consent to have two articles printed, one
entitled ``Citizenship is the Key'' by Noah Pickus, who is the
associate director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University
and who writes about the importance of hometown associations in the
United States that link immigrants to their native community and
culture while serving as a vehicle for engagement with American
society.
He says:
All of these approaches--new citizenship processes, new
structures and strategies for incorporation and new
coalitions--can focus our attention on the important and
difficult work of building a nation here at home.
And secondly, an article from the Memphis Commercial Appeal about the
teacher Christine Byrd who teaches children in Memphis who don't know
English, our common language of English, and she wrote down what
immigrant children have told her about their first impressions of
America. It reminds us of the strength and vitality of new people
coming here.
``You can take a shower with hot and cold water running at the same
time,'' said a third grader from Sudan.
``You can have a fluffy towel to dry after a shower,'' said a first
grader from Nigeria.
``You can go to school for free,'' said a student from Vietnam.
``You can go to a pet store and buy a pet,'' said a student from
China.
``You can be rescued by the [Transportation Department] on the
freeway,'' said a student from Vietnam.
``You can have ice cream any time you want,'' said a student from
China.
I ask unanimous consent these articles be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From Newsday, Apr. 9, 2006]
Citizenship is the Key
(By Noah Pickus)
Citizenship has become the most controversial element in
current immigration reform. The House has passed an
``enforcement-first'' bill that would effectively preclude
citizenship for illegal immigrants or foreign workers, and
the Senate is grappling with various proposals that could
legalize the status of some or all illegal immigrants who are
already in the United States and create new guest-worker
programs.
The key issue this legislation faces whenever it finally
gets to a conference committee will be whether illegal
immigrants or guest workers should be allowed to apply for
citizenship and under what conditions.
This attention to citizenship is surprising, given that
most of the public debate has turned on questions of
economics, security and border enforcement. It also marks a
significant break from the last major debate over illegal
workers, the 1986 Immigration and Reform Control Act. Then,
advocates for amnesty pressed for legal status, not
citizenship, arguing that the latter was passe in a global
world and that illegal immigrants' economic and social ties
demanded full legal recognition.
More recently, Mexican President Vicente Fox has said that
Mexicans in the United States are ``not going to become
American citizens, nor do they want U.S. citizenship. What
they are interested in is having their rights respected.'' In
this, he has been joined by business interests whose primary
goal is to secure a steady stream of low-wage workers.
Whether legalization or guest worker programs are a good
idea will rightfully be the subject of much debate in the
coming weeks. But if we are to have them, it is critical to
ensure that citizenship rather than merely legal status or
labor eligibility is our common goal.
Most Americans don't favor temporary guest worker programs
or simple amnesty programs. They want immigrants who work
hard and have put down roots to further invest in creating
stable neighborhoods and manageable schools, and in becoming
American. By contrast, even if a temporary worker program
operated effectively, it would create large numbers of
immigrants who are, by definition, transient.
If, as seems likely, workers who put down ties in a
community don't go home at the end of their work permit, we
are creating the conditions for continued social disorder. If
citizenship is not a realistic goal for illegal immigrants
who have been in the United States for some time, or for
future guest workers, we risk creating the same
disenfranchised underclass of immigrants that is roiling
Europe.
As important as a pathway to citizenship is, though,
building a common sense of citizenship and identity will
require an active commitment on the part of both immigrants
and citizens.
Our naturalization process needs to offer a real
opportunity for civic learning and social cohesion. The
process now is characterized by frustrated administrators,
poorly funded providers of civic and English classes,
doubtful citizens and, most especially, confused and worried
immigrants. (Although little noticed, one part of the current
immigration reform bill would establish a foundation to
support the activities of the Office of Citizenship and
provide grants for organizations to offer civics, history and
English courses.)
We also need to learn from past integration efforts that
instruction in lofty principles isn't sufficient to
incorporate newcomers. Immigrants need structures and
strategies for negotiating the often bewildering challenges
of making a new life in a new place.
One hundred years ago, during the last major wave of
immigration, Jane Addams understood how poor, uneducated
immigrants had to be enticed into the public realm by
appealing to their pressing private concerns. She recognized
that domestic issues of child care, nutrition and housing had
to be linked to broader lessons about personal and social
responsibility.
This approach is needed again today, especially in bridging
the gap between immigrant and native-born communities. For at
least the last decade or so, Americans have been worrying
about the erosion of community ties, civic institutions and
social trust. What has been too easily overlooked in these
debates is that there are sources of social capital even in
beleaguered immigrant communities.
There are, for instance, more than 1,500 hometown
associations in the United States that link immigrants to
their native community and culture while serving as vehicle
for engagement with American society. If American civic
groups joined forces with these associations, they could turn
a legalization program into an integration movement. Instead
of treating legalization as evidence of our inability to
control our borders, they could use it as a vehicle for
building coalitions in support of a common citizenship.
All of these approaches--new citizenship processes, new
structures and strategies for incorporation and new
coalitions--can focus our attention on the important and
difficult work of building a nation here at home.
____
With English as Their Second Language, Relating Comes First
(By Ruma Banerji Kumar and Halimah Abdullah)
Apr. 11, 2006.--Christine Byrd started speaking gibberish.
That's what it sounded like to the 15 or so teachers who
were in a training session with her on a recent Friday.
Byrd was actually speaking Vietnamese. She asked the group
simple questions: their names, the date.
The teachers started feeling uneasy. Some began to write
nervously on paper, randomly guessing at what she was asking
of them. Others stared blankly.
Byrd works in the Memphis city school office that trains
and supervises teachers working with foreign-language
speaking students. She had just taught the group a key
lesson: how it feels to be an immigrant child in a foreign
place.
``When you don't understand the language spoken all around
you, you don't have any foothold,'' said Byrd's supervisor,
Andrew Duck. ``You're hearing sounds, but you're not able to
relate them to anything. It causes a little bit of fear,
uneasiness.''
To drive the lesson home, Byrd also shared with teachers a
diary she's kept of what immigrant children have told her
about their
[[Page S3414]]
first impressions of America. It's an account she has
collected over the past decade.
The children use simple words.
They are grateful for basic opportunities.
Understanding that mindset, Byrd says, will help teachers
meet the needs of students who are sometimes enigmas to them.
The words of the children take on particular significance
this week, as an estimated 1 million immigrants rally across
the country for reform in the way the law classifies and
treats those who enter American borders illegally.
Byrd's journal is called ``Only in America.'' Here is what
some students say they can do only in America:
``You can take a shower with hot and cold water running at
the same time.''--Third-grader from Sudan, Treadwell
Elementary.
``You can have a fluffy towel to dry after a shower.''--
First-grader from Nigeria, Treadwell Elementary.
``You can go to school for free.''--Student from Vietnam,
Treadwell Elementary.
``You can go to a pet store and buy a pet.''--Student from
China, Treadwell Elementary.
``You can have free transportation to school.''--Student
from Sudan, Treadwell Elementary.
``You can be rescued by TDOT on the freeway.''--Student
from Vietnam, Bellevue Junior High.
``You can have ice cream anytime you want.''--Student from
China, Bellevue Junior High.
``You can wash clothes anytime you want.''--Student from
Sudan, Treadwell Elementary.
``You can go to church every Sunday.''--A student from
China, Central High.
``You can raise million dollars to help the victims of 9/
11.''--Vietnamese student, Central High.
``You can travel at night and not be afraid of running out
of gas and foods.''--Student from West Africa, Central High.
``You can travel anywhere at anytime and not have to ask
for permission.''--Vietnamese student, Central High.
``You can vote for anybody you want.''--Student from Sudan,
Central High.
``Women can vote.''--Student from Afghanistan, Central
High.
``Women can have her baby at the hospital without her
husband's blessing.''--Student from Iraq, Central High.
``You can own 3 or more televisions, a house and 1 to 2
cars at the same time.''--Student from Vietnam, Bruce
Elementary.
``You can go to a Pet Bakery Shop and buy a cookie for your
pet''--Student from Vietnam, Bruce Elementary.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I see the whip. I have three or four
remarks on another subject.
Mr. McCONNELL. I am in no hurry.
Mr. ALEXANDER. I thank the whip. May I be granted time to finish my
remarks?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, the Senator is recognized
for 3 minutes.
____________________