[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 46 (Thursday, March 16, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H2087-H2088]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           AN IMMIGRANT STORY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to share the story of a family that 
I have come to know. They came from a humble place, scraping by. Amidst 
instability in their native land, they could barely keep food on their 
table. For years, their government ignored their struggle and 
suffering. Like so many others, they dreamed of a better life in 
America.
  Finally, they managed to cobble together enough money to make the 
dangerous journey to our shores. Yet, once here, they discovered that 
life wasn't so easy. They were resented for their accents, their faith, 
and their foreign ways. Doors were slammed in their faces when they 
sought work.
  So they worked harder. They leaned on each other and those who came 
before. They forged a community and they organized. They built 
churches, businesses, and schools. Slowly but surely, they began to 
enjoy some measure of success and stability.
  Mr. Speaker, I am sure that there are Garcias or Asgaris or 
Rodriguezes that share that same story, but the one I tell is not 
theirs.
  This family's name is Kennedy. Struggling immigrants whose quest for 
a better life took them from Ireland's potato famine to Boston's 
immigrant barrios. It is the ageless story of a young man looking for a 
better future, of a family in search of a safe place to settle down, of 
the sacrifice that any parent would make for the benefit of their 
children. And it has been repeated millions of times in every corner of 
our world in the over 150 years since my ancestors fled their home to 
find a new one.
  My father has a memory of my great-grandmother, Rose, that he shared 
with me once. He was playing outside with friends one day when she 
called him in. As he fidgeted around and impatiently tried to sit 
still, she pulled out a big scrapbook and flipped to a stack of 
carefully folded newspapers in the back. One after another, she opened 
them up to the help wanted section. There, she pointed to ad after ad 
marked in big block letters: No Irish need apply.
  My great-grandmother's message was clear: Don't forget where you came 
from, don't forget the blood and the sweat and the tears that 
generations before you have shed so that you would never feel the sting 
of prejudice.
  For my family and so many others, this became a deeply personal 
fight. In July of 1964, a young Attorney General named Robert Kennedy 
sat in front of the House Judiciary Committee. There, my grandfather 
urged Congress to act on immigration reform. Our system, he said, ``is 
a source of embarrassment to us around the world, it is a source of 
anguish to many of our own citizens, it is a source of loss to the 
economic and creative strength of our nation as a whole, it is 
inconsistent with our principles and out of step with our history.''
  The opposition that he and other advocates have faced half a century 
ago sounds eerily familiar to so many of us today: Immigrants will 
flood our cities and towns. They will take American jobs. They will 
poison American culture. They aren't from here. They aren't like us. 
They are somebody else's babies.
  Fifty years later, the opposition still hasn't updated their talking 
points. Fifty years later, our broken immigration system is still a 
source of embarrassment, but worse, of anguish and of loss. Fifty years 
later, we face a threat unlike almost any we have seen in recent 
history: a President who has built an entire campaign--and now an 
administration--on the scapegoating of immigrant families.
  We have watched President Trump threaten our most fundamental 
American values with border walls and bad

[[Page H2088]]

hombres. We have heard his racial epithets. We have seen cold-hearted 
executive orders. We have stood in horror as his administration sweeps 
the country with raids that appear unprecedented in their utter 
disregard for family, community, and common decency.
  That is why I stand here today, on the eve of St. Patrick's Day, the 
proud son of Irish immigrants and the humble beneficiary of our 
country's golden doors, to deliver a message to immigrant families: 
President Trump does not speak for all of us, and his immigration 
policies are opposed by leaders in Washington who do not take your 
patriotism for granted. We are grateful for your contribution to our 
communities, our culture, and our economy. We understand your 
willingness to walk to the ends of the Earth, to navigate oceans and 
mountains and deserts and war zones because every parent would do the 
same. We know what you have risked to give them a better future and 
what you have sacrificed to be a part of our United States. We stand by 
your side in the fight ahead.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
engaging in personalities toward the President.

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