President Obama's Dream Act Speech

Here is a speech I wish President Obama would make…. As a stand alone appeal, or as part of his State of the Union.

My fellow citizens (Ed note, I did not say “Fellow Americans” because we are only part of America)

The topic of my speech tonight is immigration, or more precisely, the Dream Act.

I submitted it to the 111th Congress, where it passed the House, but not the Senate.
I intend to resubmit it to the 112th Congress, in the hope that they will see its virtue.

Here is my argument, on plain and simple terms.
That starts with a short history lesson.

Our country, right from the start, has been built on the hard, creative work of immigrants from around the world.
Every one of our forefathers, or their parents or grandparents, was immigrants. Mostly from England. Immigrants, like the Pilgrims, who sought religious freedoms. But, also freedom of opportunity. In much of the old country, if you were born into wealth, you kept that wealth. But, if you were born into poverty, you remained impoverished. The new country offered you the opportunity to break these bonds of poverty. If you were capable, the sky was (and still is) the limit.

These immigrants, or their descendants, wrote the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, our early banking laws, the very foundations of our country.

Following on the heels of the founding fathers were the second wave of immigrants. In this case…forced immigrants. Yes, I speak now of the wave of slaves from Africa. They came unwillingly, under very harsh conditions. But, somehow they survived to produce a crop of descendants who have enriched our country with intellectualism, business acumen, sports stardom and a rich cultural heritage. This was the beginning of the diversification of our great country. Nobody can be proud of this forced immigration, but we can all appreciate what their descendants have added to our country.

The next wave of immigration occurred after the Civil War on through the World Wars. In this case, most came from Europe. Irish, Jewish, German, Italian, French, you name it. The US became the melting pot of the world. These waves of immigrants included inventors, entertainers, businessmen, etc. Immigrants blended totally into what we call the fabric of the United States. Many of these gained little or no note. But, many produced offspring who did. Second, third, and beyond generation citizens who built this country into the world power, economically, militarily and culturally through the last century.

As the century drew to a close, there came a wave of immigrants from new lands…. Asia, Middle East, India, and most significantly, Latin America.
Alas, some of the latter did not come here through conventional channels. We have come to call them ”Illegal Immigrants”. This is a major problem for us as a country and for them as a people.

But, the Dream Act, as many might want you to believe, does not give all of them paths to citizenship. Instead, it focuses tightly on the children they brought. Often, these children came at such a young age that they have no memory of their homelands. They learned English at a young age and speak just like the rest of us. They attend our schools, star in both classroom and on the sports fields, and join our military. In short, they are the very kind of immigrants that built our country in past years.
As our existing population levels off, we sorely need this wave of immigrants to keep us ahead of the world.

So, I beseech each and every citizen of this country, all 300+ million of you, to contact your Congressperson. Let him or her know that you back the Dream Act.
It is important, not only to those desiring citizenship, but to the many more who already possess it, by birth or naturalization. You or your ancestors were once immigrants. And you made this county try great. Now it is the turn for new immigrants, who have already demonstrated their potential for contribution, to be given that chance. That chance to discover the next long lasting battery to power cars, or the next renewable energy source, or become the next Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Elvis Presley or Michael Jordon. Yes, all of these were immigrants or their decendents.