eMediaMillWorks
Tuesday, July 10, 2001

Following is the transcript of President Bush's remarks on the immigration process at Ellis Island Tuesday.

SPEAKERS: GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

JOHN ASHCROFT, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL

ASHCROFT: Thank you, Mayor Giuliani, and Governor Pataki.

It is also a pleasure to welcome Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Mel Martin, today it's a pleasure to have you with us.

I would also like to acknowledge the New York District Director of INS, Edward McElroy, for his service to America. We're very grateful for your hard work and your dedication.

(APPLAUSE)

We gather today at a symbolic center, a center of immigrant experience in America, to celebrate America's long-standing and continuing embrace of new Americans from all parts of the world. After 100, years the words inscribed on another part of this memorial, the Statute of Liberty, remained the best expression of our nation's commitment to welcoming new Americans: ``Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free, the wretched refuse of your teaming shores. Send these, the homeless, tempests tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.''

These were the words of Emma Lazarus, a young poet who, herself, was the descendant of immigrants, sephardic Jews driven from the Iberian Peninsula. They came to the United States of America as religious refugees when New York was still called New Amsterdam. By the time Emma Lazarus penned her famous words, they were successful merchants, professionals and intellectuals.

Her poem is testimony to the uniquely American experience which, in her words, provide a basis for new Americans finding not just a welcoming, but an unapologetic expression of confidence in the power of freedom. Miss Lazarus did not write, ``Give me your top 10 percent or give me the cream of your crop, give me the merit scholars on the SAT.''

She wrote, ``Send me the homeless, the tempests tossed, the wretched refuse.'' She understood that the power and chemistry of freedom itself could provide a basis for ordinary people doing extraordinary things, and that's the story of the United States of America.

For 100 years, Lady Liberty adorned this harbor and has beckoned new Americans. Her promise is that when people are allowed to breath the air of freedom, to exercise themselves and their talents in an environment of opportunities, that there is no limit to the heights to which individuals can rise.

The man I'm privileged to introduce today is a living, breathing example of the transforming power of freedom. Although he came to a different port on the opposite side of the country, Viet Dinh and his family were once homeless and tempests tossed only to find opportunity in the United States.

On Thanksgiving weekend in 1978, they came to America from Vietnam with little more than the clothes on their backs. They left Vietnam on a 49-foot boat, carrying 85 aspiring individuals, aspiring for freedom. On the seventh day of their journey at sea, a violent storm crippled the boat.

They drifted for days until they made shore in Malaysia only to be forced back out to sea. And when they reached the shore in Malaysia a second time, Viet's mother destroyed the hull of the boat with an ax, so that they would not be forced again to return to sea. After months in a refugee camp, they made their way to America. Viet Dinh was 10 years old.

Like immigrants from all parts of the world, Viet and his family faced formidable obstacles. But they faced those obstacles in the context of freedom. There were seven mouths to feed. Viet's father remained behind in Vietnam attempting to escape his country with the help of his oldest daughter Van. Viet and his family supported them by cleaning floors and picking berries.

On his father's 25th attempt to escape Vietnam, his father succeeded in joining the family in the United States. In the meantime, freedom had worked a miracle again. A miracle of opportunity for Viet, who went on to graduate from Harvard College and the Harvard Law School and to become a clerk to Justice O'Connor on the United States Supreme Court. On May 31, 2001, after an appointment by President Bush, he was sworn in as assistant attorney general, directing the Office of Legal Policy for the United States of America.

No higher honor can be accorded to any individual in the United States of America than to welcome new citizens to this great country. And I can think of no better person to have this honor today than Viet Dinh.

Ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome and join me in welcoming Assistant Attorney General Viet Dinh.

(APPLAUSE)

* New citizens are naturalized. *

ASHCROFT: In his inaugural speech to the American people, George W. Bush reminded us that America has never been united by blood or birth or soil but by ideals that transcend our differences and unite us in the bonds of citizenship.

New Americans no longer pass through this magnificent hall, but the ideals that make us Americans live on here. And in the Bush administration's commitment to fairer and more effective and more humane immigration laws, those ideals are honored, revered and respected.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm honored to introduce a man who believes deeply in the Promise of America for all Americans, new and old, a man who believes that when Americans work together, there is nothing we cannot accomplish.

Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States, George W. Bush.

(APPLAUSE)

BUSH: Thank you all. Thank you very much.

Please be seated.

Thank you very much, Mr. Attorney General. I appreciate your kind words, and I appreciate your service to America.

My fellow Americans who stand behind us, congratulations.

(APPLAUSE)

Just a few minutes ago, I was a leader of another country. Now, it's my honor to speak to you as the leader of your country.

And the great thing about America is you don't have to listen unless you want to.

Governor Pataki, it's great to be with you.

Mayor Giuliani, thank you both for your kind comments.

Senator Schumer, Charles Ellis Schumer, who was named for Ellis Island, and Senator Clinton. Thank you all for being here.

Congressman Fossella and Congresswoman Maloney, thank you for being here.

Assistant Attorney General Dinh, thank you for your service to your country. I made a great appointment when I picked him.

Sylvia Sanchez (ph), thank you for singing the National Anthem. And ladies and gentlemen, it is an honor to be here.

I'm pleased to be joined by two members of my Cabinet, who are Americans by choice: The Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Mel Martinez.

(APPLAUSE)

This little piece of land, less than 30 acres in all, is like no other place in America.

Twelve million souls arrived here and would speak of the experience for the rest of their lives. They remember the difficulties along with the joys. They remember the long lines, never longer than on a single day in 1907 when more than 11,000 new immigrants filed through this hall. They remember how loud it was here and how confusing. There was no president to greet them, only people with clipboards, stethoscopes and a lot of questions.

A man from Italy describes seeing the Statute of Liberty for the first time, he said, ``The thrill was unbelievable but always the fear because you had to go through Ellis Island.''

For all that, they kept hoping, they kept believing and they kept coming. And 100 million Americans can draw a straight line from the life they know today to a moment in this hall, when a name was called and a person took the first step towards citizenship in the United States of America. Each of you took that first step some time ago. Several of you have been here for decades.

This group of new Americans include students, teachers, a restaurant owner, a professor, a bartender, an insurance agent, a doctor and a violinist. For all of you, the oath of citizenship is more than a formality, and today, America's more than your home; it's your country.

This is one of the things that makes our country so unique: With a single oath, all at once you become as fully American as the most direct descendant of a founding father. The founders themselves decided that when they declared independence and wrote our Constitution. You see, citizenship is not limited by birth or background.

America, at its best, is a welcoming society. We welcome not only immigrants themselves, but the many gifts they bring and the values they live by. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants take the oath of citizenship every year. Each has come not only to take, but to give. They come asking for a chance to work hard, support their families and to rise in the world, and together, they make our nation more, not less, American.

Immigration is not a problem to be solved. It is a sign of a confident and successful nation, and people who seek to make America their home should be met in that spirit by representatives of our government.

New arrivals should be greeted not with suspicion and resentment, but with openness and courtesy. As many immigrants can testify, that standard has not always been observed. For those seeking entry, the process is often a prolonged ordeal, full of complexities and burdens. I'm committed to changing this with INS reforms that treat every immigrant with respect and fairness.

Today, here's the goal for the INS: A six-month standard from start to finish, for processing an application for immigration. It won't be achievable in every case, but it's the standard of this administration, and I expect the INS to meet it.

(APPLAUSE)

Not every applicant is entitled to admission, but every applicant is entitled to a timely and courteous review of his or her case. We can help legal immigrants in other ways. If a child's parent and financial sponsor should pass away, we should permit the other parent to take over as a sponsor. And in the case of a minor child, entitlement to a visa should be measured by the age on the date of the application, not on the date the INS has finally processed the visa. And we should spare families the hardship of separation while one member is awaiting a greencard. I support providing an extension of the temporary window that allows people to file for legal residency without having to return to their country of origin.

And I urge the members of the United State Congress to act swiftly on 245(i) reform.

(APPLAUSE)

In the life of an immigrant, citizenship is a defining event. In the life of our nation, new citizens bring renewal. By taking an oath, as you have done today, immigrants affirm a belief in the American Creed. For most Americans, there is no formal moment of affirmation, but to each of us, fall the same responsibilities.

Our democracy is sustained by the moral commitments we share: reverence for justice and obedience to the law; tolerance and decent respect for the opinions of others; responsibility, not only to ourselves, but for our families and neighborhoods; love of country, shown not in prideful boasts but in modest gratitude and in active concern for our nation's future.

That future depends on the values of self government, our sense of duty, loyalty, self-confidence and regard for the common good.

We're a diverse country and getting more diverse, and these virtues are what keeps this great country together. Believing in them and living by them, this great land will always be united.

(APPLAUSE)

When they left behind the old world, the millions who landed here at Ellis Island, came with a vision of a better life. They sought more than economic opportunity, though that was surely part of it. They wanted more than political freedom, though that was crucial. Above all, they wanted the rights, the duties and the dignity of American citizenship. This place is now a museum but it stands for a living tradition, and on Ellis Island today, the great hope of America is renewed.

Since becoming the president, I've gotten to do a lot of really fascinating things, but there's nothing quite like the event this morning. So will you please join me and rise as we say the Pledge of Allegiance. The right hand up, please. Actually, the right hand on your heart.

* Pledge of Allegiance. *

BUSH: Congratulations.

(APPLAUSE)