A United America Can Do Better Than Bush Amnesty Plan

Statement by U.S. English Chairman Mauro E. Mujica

Our nation is a nation of immigrants – legal immigrants. For generations, millions of immigrants have come to our shores, learned our language and gone through legal means to attain their citizenship. These immigrants never intended to be temporary Americans. Despite hardships, they spent days and nights working and learning so that they could take the citizenship oath and work toward the American Dream. Today our towns and cities are dotted with their businesses and legacies and their children and grandchildren are the lifeblood of the United States.

The idea that a three-year period of temporary legal status will have the same result is preposterous. Even with the ability to renew the status, Mr. Bush promised that the adjustment, “will have an end.” What the president is proposing will not lead to a stronger America. Would Jonas Salk have had the opportunity to create the polio vaccine if his parents, Russian immigrants, were forced to leave the United States after three years?

What makes this plan even more reprehensible is that the President was singling out specific nationalities in his efforts. The four civilians he welcomed at the beginning of his press conference did not represent the diversity of America, but only the Hispanic population. In a nation that features 1.4 million native Chinese, 1.2 million native Filipinos, 1 million natives of India and 653,000 Germans, where were the advocates for these hard-working, dedicated immigrants?

At the conclusion of his plan, President Bush spoke of the values that make us all one nation. But in mentioning liberty and tolerance, he excluded the biggest binding factor of our multi-racial, multi-ethnic society, our common language, English. It is English that brings together the immigrant from Africa and from Europe. It is English that allows us to share ideas and customs, enriching our society. It is English that President Reagan once called “the shared, unifying language of our nation.”

Under the President’s plan, the nation’s proud history as a nation of legal immigrants will become a nation of legal immigrants and temporary legal aliens, two separate groups in a nation that has always moved forward as one.