[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 80 (Tuesday, May 12, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2210-S2212]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Immigration
Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, we are blessed to live in a nation
that has withstood the test of time for 250 years. This country has had
its fair share of problems, but we have been able to overcome and get
by together, at the end of the day, because we believe in America and
what it stands for.
America was founded on a core set of values that have persisted
through the years and have given hope to so many who were seeking a
better life. American values are rooted in liberty, equality,
opportunity, self-governance, and the rule of law.
Liberty means freedom--freedom from tyranny, whether it is political,
religious, or economic. Since our founding, individual freedoms have
been the foundation of American society. You are free to choose what
you believe, how you worship, what work you pursue, and how you build a
life for yourself.
Equality means that, in this country, we don't have a caste system.
We don't tell people they are stuck where they are born. We believe all
men are created equal, and everyone has the opportunity to succeed,
regardless of their background--an opportunity that makes this country
very special.
You know, I used to tell my players all the time: This country owes
you nothing but an opportunity to achieve what you want to achieve.
Now, you might get knocked to the ground and not make it to that
point as soon as you would like, but the country that you love so
much--that we all love so much--gives that chance to get back up and go
again.
You know, we are the only country that does that, out of 200 in the
world we live in.
What you decide to do with that opportunity, after you achieve it, is
up to you. That is the American dream. That is what this country is
about--the belief that, if you are willing to work hard, you can build
a better life. The American dream is unique to this country alone.
For centuries now, people have fled dictatorships, failed
governments, and oppression because they knew that dream was real.
Then there is the rule of law--the cornerstone for why our country is
so great. No one is above the law--not citizen, not newcomer, not even
the government itself. In America, if you live here, you are expected
to follow the law, period.
Those are the values that have made this country great. Those are the
values that drew generations of immigrants to our shores over 250
years. Sadly--sadly--today, we are not seeing immigrants with the same
mentality moving to this country.
For most of our history, people have come here to become Americans.
They came here to assimilate. They worked hard, they learned, they
followed the law, and they contributed. That is what this country is
all about.
Today, we are seeing large numbers--and I mean large numbers--of
people coming to this country with no intention of assimilating into
our culture or our way of life. People from third-world hellholes are
being let into this country who have no desire to adapt to our way of
life. They not only refuse to work, but they also choose to take
advantage of America's welfare system, forcing hard-working Americans
to bankroll their lives.
The question must be asked, why are we letting these people who don't
share our values and refuse to assimilate--why are we letting them into
our country?
The word ``assimilate'' is often treated with suspicion because it is
often related to racism. But assimilation has absolutely nothing to do
with race; it is about values. ``Assimilation'' doesn't mean you
abandon your heritage or your faith or forget where you are from; it is
about embracing a new, shared belief system.
People that came here in the past understood this. Examples would be
Italian Americans, Greek Americans, German Americans who brought
elements of their heritage with them, but
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they understood that they had new responsibilities. When they embraced
this country, they embraced our values: respect the law, be committed
to a constitutional government, and participate in the civic duties
that enable a society to remain free.
So why are we letting people into this country that don't want to
assimilate? Why are we doing that? Immigration is a privilege; it is
not an entitlement. This country doesn't owe anyone entry. We don't owe
anybody. And somewhere along the way, we lost the ability to discern
who we choose to welcome into our great country. We lost it somewhere.
But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to solve this problem. It really
doesn't.
Those who come to this country that want to assimilate, embrace this
Nation's core set of values, and contribute to our society should be
welcomed with open arms because we are all descendants of immigrants
who loved this country. We should accept the best and the brightest,
those who are hard workers, intelligent, with skill sets who can
provide a quality service to their communities, and people who
understand and share the core American values that we all have.
But the problem is that for whatever reason, Western civilization has
been guilt-tripped into accepting anyone who wants to come here. That
is wrong. That is not what this country was built on.
The Biden and Obama administrations brought in millions of immigrants
who have done nothing to make the United States a better place to
live--zero. Instead, they have been like leeches, taking advantage of
the welfare system and are treating hard-working American taxpayers as
their personal ATM machine.
In the last two decades, we have seen a dramatic--I mean, a
dramatic--transformation in our society. It has changed and not in a
good way. Every time you turn on the news today, you hear about
immigrants robbing stores, killing Americans, sexually assaulting and
raping women, protesting, and carrying their home country flags instead
of the American flag. What is up with this? And where are these
immigrants coming from who are committing most of these crimes? Well,
you guessed it--from third world countries.
These aren't the kind of people we should be letting into the
greatest country on the face of the Earth. It is a privilege, not a
right, to live in the United States of America--a privilege--but
unfortunately, our immigration system is absolutely broken.
How many more rapes, assaults, murders, stories of these people
scamming American taxpayers out of their money do we need to hear
before we say enough is enough?
Our immigration system is broken, but no one wants to fix it--nobody
in this building or on the other end of this building. Yet, when
attempts are made to fix it, Washington resists.
Take temporary protected status for instance. The U.S. House of
Representatives a few weeks ago recently voted to extend temporary
protected status for roughly 250,000 Haitians. When the Trump
administration announced that they were going to terminate the
temporary protected status of Haitians, the DC swamp had an absolute
meltdown.
You can't do that. These will be voters for us.
As usual, the swamp came out in full force to ensure that these
people remained on American soil, putting American taxpayers in harm's
way.
According to a House Judiciary Committee report, 91 percent of
Haitians with temporary protected status--91 percent--entered the
United States illegally and over 50 percent of them are in households
that are on at least one welfare program--53 percent. Mind-boggling.
Temporary protected status was never--was never--supposed to be a
permanent amnesty program. It was supposed to help people temporarily,
give them time to get back on their feet. That is not what is
happening. Programs meant to be temporary are becoming permanent right
in front of our eyes, and we are not doing anything about it. Policies
meant to be limited are being expanded. The American taxpayers are left
out in the cold, and the American people are paying every single dime
for this huge amnesty bill--billions.
Let me be clear about something: America, this country, is a
Christian nation. We are called to love our neighbor and to minister to
the poor. That is our job. But we have enough Americans in this country
who are in poverty for us to look after and barely enough money to take
care of them. We can't take care of all the poor people in the world,
folks. That can't happen. For us to remain a society that is free, with
values, we have to take care of our own first, and then we take care of
other people.
Another problem we are having is immigrants who come here and bring
their radical beliefs with them. I have talked to this on the floor
many times in the last few months. These people openly chant ``Death to
America.'' Yet we allow them to live here among us. You can't make it
up.
Middle Easterners who are predominantly Muslim come here, take
advantage of our welfare system, which most do, and they refuse to
assimilate. Their entire goal is to turn this country into a Muslim
country and to be governed by the Islamic cult and Sharia law.
Now, there are good Muslims who come to this country, who embrace the
values that we have, contribute to society, don't follow Sharia law,
and they are 100 percent welcome to be here. This is not about one
group; this is about a group of people that want to change our country
and want to kill every American in this country.
The Center for Immigration Studies published a report stating that
more than half of the noncitizen households from the Middle East use at
least one major welfare program. Think about that. We are having to
fund most of these people that are coming here.
Islamists aren't coming here looking for a better life. That is a
true fallacy. They are coming here to impose their radical beliefs on
us and to mooch off the American taxpayers. ``Game, set, match.'' That
is exactly why they are here. They are coming to impose everything they
possibly can on the United States of America, get by with it, and tear
us down at the same time. They have no interest in adapting to American
national identity. They want to change the national identity to mirror
their death cult Islamic beliefs. You heard that. They are here to kill
us all. They believe that.
Just look at what is happening in Europe. In Europe, they stopped
enforcing their own laws. Europe stopped forcing immigrants to adapt to
their way of life, and now they are dealing with the consequences.
We are about 10 years behind Europe. Europe is gone. They are being
run by a different cult. They have lost all their values. They have
lost everything that was built in Europe and in a lot of these other
European countries because they closed their eyes, and they thought
they were doing the right thing. And politicians got them in trouble.
We should be learning from that, not repeating it.
Americans, open your eyes. Look what is happening. We are losing. We
are losing our country as we know it to people that want to destroy us.
But this issue doesn't just affect today; it affects us today and
future generations.
Mass migration is destroying our educational system. Listen to me--it
is destroying it. Go to any high school, and I can show you examples.
More and more American kids are entering the classroom hearing multiple
languages being spoken around them every day and having a difficult
time making friends because they are now the minority in the schools.
We are having enough problems with our education system, and our kids
can't understand the language the other people are speaking. That goes
with our higher education, which has teachers and professors coming
from other countries that can't speak English that are teaching our
kids in higher education, and our kids are paying a fortune to go to
these 4-year schools.
Enough is enough. This is an English language country, and that is
how we speak. That is how we communicate.
Approximately 5 million students in U.S. public schools are
classified as English learners. Five million can't speak English in our
public schools across our country. It is destroying us. That is 10 to
11 percent of our K-through-12 population and growing every day, and we
have our eyes closed.
Our kids already have enough problems. Many of our kids were set back
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during COVID. It was disastrous. What the Federal Government did to our
kids by closing our schools was a disaster, and it was our fault, the
people in this building right here, but we are running and hiding now
when the truth is coming out.
So now our kids are being left behind in the classroom because school
resources are being reallocated for kids that come from other
countries. We need to be spending money on our kids to give them better
lives. We are leaving our kids behind, and our country will not survive
without teaching and developing the next generation.
The purpose of our immigration system should be to benefit hard-
working American taxpayers. Do you think mass immigration is benefiting
this country? Absolutely not. There is not one benefit to it. It is the
exact opposite of what we should be doing.
You know, mass immigration is a leech that is slowly bleeding this
country dry, and politicians and the people across our country better
open their eyes. There has been a lot of talk over the past few years
about deportation, and I am 100 percent for what President Trump is
doing. They have to go home. We can't afford it. The American
taxpayers--they need help. We can't help people if we can't help
ourselves.
We also need to have a national conversation about who we want in
this country in the first place. The American taxpayer deserves that
right to say who is here and who is not. Politicians are taking credit
for letting all these people in. They need to be taking credit for
destroying this country.
We need to be asking ourselves, what is our national identity? Many
of our immigration laws were made decades ago.
They were made in a different time. That is why tomorrow I will be
introducing the Assimilation Act. My bill is simple.
It says America has a right to set immigration policy in the national
interest. It says our systems should favor people who will work hard,
contribute, support themselves, and strengthen the United States of
America. It says we should move away from chain migration policies and
away from visa lottery systems that treat every entry into the United
States like a raffle drawing.
What an embarrassment.
It says legal immigration should place higher value on skill, merit,
economic contributions, and the ability to succeed without becoming
dependent on the American taxpayers. It says temporary work programs
should serve the American economy, not undercut the American work. It
says we should take visa overstays seriously, address parole abuse, and
restore credibility to the rule of law.
And it says that citizens in the United States should, once again,
reflect commitment, character, and real civic integration.
Now, none of this means America shuts the door. America has always
been a nation that can strengthen immigration--history proves that. But
it works only when our borders are enforced, the rule of law is
followed, and when those who desire to come here build a better life
and are expected to assimilate into American culture, not destroy our
culture.
Without those conditions, the logic of immigration begins to change.
Obama and Biden were hell-bent on changing the immigration landscape of
this country. They were letting them in right and left.
A nation can't survive, folks--a nation can't survive--and won't
survive when mass migration occurs and there isn't any expectation of
assimilation. It is never talked about.
Come on in. Do whatever you want. Preach whatever you want. Teach
whatever you want. Destroy whatever you want. We are not going to watch
you.
We better open our eyes. There is no obligation for immigrants to
commit to participate in the way Americans live. If we don't do that,
we will lose our country. We have to start pushing assimilation.
So in that case, I believe we are seeing this right now in the United
States. Immigration is no longer a good thing for our society. It is
not doing us one bit of good. It is destroying the American dream. It
is destroying our generation and the generations to come.
There is a reason why we stopped all immigration in the 1920s. Did
you know that? We stopped it all for the same reasons. We had to get
back on our feet. Folks, we are $39 trillion in debt and rising. We
can't afford these people that can't help themselves.
Mass migration without assimilation will erase our country's
identity. We are turning into Europe and in serious danger of losing
the core of who we are.
I want to be clear about this. The United States has zero obligation
to roll out the red carpet for third-world countries around the world--
zero. We are here to help America first. We have enough of our own
problems without taking up everybody else's.
America is a nation built on shared values. People from all walks of
life could come here and live peacefully because they understood what
being an American meant. Do they know that today? That is what has
always made it exceptional because people know what America is about,
our core principles. But in a country as diverse as ours, it can only
function properly when we accept the duties of citizenship and our
Constitution.
Folks, the United States is at a crossroads. We are at a crossroads.
We will decide to try sharing a common civic identity, or we will go
the way of Europe and let mass migration without assimilation erode the
civic duties and responsibilities Americans boldly carried out over the
last 2\1/2\ centuries--250 years.
For too long the national conversation around immigration and
citizenship has been framed almost entirely in terms of give them
rights, protection, benefits, while saying less about loyalty, duty,
and shared obligation to make this country better.
A free country cannot survive solely on entitlement. This country was
built on hard work. It requires citizens who understand that American
life is not just something to receive. It is something to uphold.
If the United States is to remain what it has long claimed to be, it
must be clear about the answer to a simple question: What does it mean
to be an American?
And we must be willing to insist that the answer still matters
because when a nation loses the courage to define itself, it invites
others to redefine--redefine it--beyond recognition. We cannot allow
people to redefine our country.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sheehy). The Senator from Alabama.
Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the
previously scheduled roll call vote begin immediately.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.