[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 77 (Thursday, May 20, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H3690-H3691]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     RESPONSE TO PRESIDENT CALDERON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I rise to take strong exception to the 
speech by the President of Mexico here in this Chamber today. The 
Mexican Government has made it very clear for many years that it holds 
American sovereignty in contempt, and President Calderon's behavior as 
a guest of the Congress today confirms and underscores this attitude. 
It is highly inappropriate for the President of Mexico to lecture 
Americans on American immigration law, just as it would be for 
Americans to lecture Mexico on its own laws. It is obvious that 
President Calderon does not understand the nature of America or the 
purpose of our immigration law. Unlike Mexico's immigration law, which 
is brutally exclusionary, the purpose of America's law is not to keep 
people out. It is to assure that as people come to the United States, 
they do so with the intention of becoming Americans and of raising 
their children as Americans. Unlike Mexico, our Nation embraces legal 
immigration, and what makes that possible is assimilation.
  A century ago, President Teddy Roosevelt put it this way. He said, 
``In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes 
here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, 
he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is 
an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or 
birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's 
becoming in every facet an American and nothing but an American. There 
can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, 
but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but 
one flag, the American flag. We have room for but one language here, 
and that is the English language. And we have room for but one sole 
loyalty, and that is a loyalty to the American people.'' That is how 
we've created one great Nation from all the peoples of the world.

  The largest group of immigrants now comes from Mexico. A recent RAND 
study found that during the 20th century, while our immigration laws 
were actually enforced, assimilation worked, and it made possible the 
swift attainment of the American Dream for millions of immigrants 
seeking to escape the conditions of Mexico. That is the broader meaning 
of our Nation's motto, ``e pluribus unum''--from many people, one 
people, the American people. But there is now an element in our 
political structure that seeks to undermine that concept of e pluribus 
unum. It seeks to hyphenate Americans, to develop linguistic divisions, 
to assign rights and preferences based on race and ethnicity, and to 
elevate devotion to foreign ideologies and traditions while at the same 
time denigrating American culture, American values, and American 
founding principles. In order to do so, they know that they have to 
stop the process of assimilation. And in order to do that, they have to 
undermine our immigration laws. It is an outrage that a foreign head of 
state would appear in this Chamber and actively seek to do so. And it 
is a disgrace that he would be cheered on from the left wing of the 
White House and from many Democrats here in Congress.

[[Page H3691]]

  Arizona has not adopted a new immigration law. All it has done is to 
enforce existing law that this President refuses to enforce. It's 
hardly a radical policy to suggest that if an officer on a routine 
traffic stop encounters a driver with no driver's license, no passport, 
and who doesn't speak English, that maybe that individual might be here 
illegally. And to those who say we must reform our immigration laws, I 
reply, We don't need to reform them. We need to enforce them, just as 
every other government does, just as Mexico does. Above all, this is a 
debate of, by, and for the American people. If President Calderon 
wishes to participate in that debate, I invite him to obey our 
immigration laws, apply for citizenship, do what 600,000 legal 
immigrants to our Nation are doing right now, learn our history and our 
customs, and become an American, and then he will have every right to 
participate in that debate. Until then, I would politely invite him to 
have the courtesy while a guest of this Congress to abide by the 
fundamental rules of diplomacy between civilized nations not to meddle 
in each other's domestic debates.

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