Monday, May 24, 2010
Response to Mexican President by California Congressman
Tom McClintock
(Text)
House of Representatives –
May 20, 2010 – 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.
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.
——————————
Representative Tom McClintock
(Republican, California) represents the 4th Congressional District in the United States Congress. Congressional Record, Thomas/Library of Congress
