President Barack Obama described immigration on Tuesday as the nation’s oldest tradition and part of what makes the country exceptional, as he sought to draw a contrast with those who would seal the borders to people seeking to escape hardships or persecution.
“We can never say it often or loudly enough: Immigrants and refugees revitalize and renew America,” Obama said.
Obama has been trying this week to reassure the public about his strategy for stopping the Islamic State group while also emphasizing that the United States is a welcoming country that promotes religious tolerance.
Obama implicitly drew a contrast with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has campaigned on a plan to wall off the Mexican border and recently called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States. Many members of Congress have voiced worries that allowing more Syrian refugees into the country will make the nation more susceptible to a terrorist attack.
Obama spoke at the National Archives Museum, where immigrants from Iraq, Ethiopia, Uganda and 22 other nations were sworn in as U.S. citizens. He spoke from a lectern placed in front of the display of the Constitution. He said the nation’s first refugees were the pilgrims and that eight signers of the Declaration of Independence were immigrants.
Obama described various ways that immigrants and refugees contribute to the fabric of America, saying they are more likely to create jobs by starting their own businesses. He said many of the Fortune 500 companies were started by immigrants or the children of immigrants.
“Immigrants are the teachers who inspire our children and they’re the doctors who keep us healthy,” Obama said, adding that many also serve in the military, “often risking their lives for an America that isn’t even their own yet.”
Obama also said the United States has often not lived up to its values as a welcoming nation. He recited the history of slaves and the treatment of immigrants from Ireland, China and elsewhere as examples. In one of the darkest chapters of the nation’s history, he said Japanese immigrants and even Japanese-American citizens were forced into internment camps during World War II.
“We betrayed not only our fellow Americans, but our deepest values. We betrayed these values. It’s happened before,” Obama said. “And the biggest irony of course was that those who betrayed these values were themselves the children of immigrants. How quickly we forget.”
(AP)
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11 Responses
may I remind Mr. Obama that Jews escaping the Nazis weren’t allowed into America??????????
He bring new meaning to the meaning of insult! There is no comparison! In fact it’s foolish to compare the two!
10 years ago, it’s likely we would have felt like he’s telling us to feel but after the caliphate declaration and the indiscriminate killings world wide by the hands of moose-leems what does he want!
Let him first take care of his poor brother in Kenya and then lecture us hard working, tax-overburdened Americans without secret service to protect us that we should take in these killers! What a dope!
Ferd
What a rotten mamzer. Where is ADL when you need them to complain. Oh, i forgot, ADL open their hypocritical mouths only when Republicans or NRA use “Hitler” or Holocaust comparisons.
yes we remember clearly the boatload of over 3000 jews escaping from the nazis and were not admitted to the us or cuba we also remember thje evian conference whre canada australia us and new zealand and others did not want any jews admitted as far as africa goes nobody would give transpotation but canada now sent govt planes to bring syrians may you all live in infamy.
The words this guy deserves are not fit to be printed in this forum.
The intellectual deficit here is obvious. During and after WWII, the concept of terror was non-existent. Refugees were only that. No one was infiltrating, no one came here with murder or violence in their plans. Today, that is not the case, and there are way too many examples to prove it.
The Obama administration has admitted that the process of vetting the Muslim immigrants is poor. Whether it is technically better or longer than those coming from other countries is irrelevant if it does not succeed in preventing those with murderous minds from being granted entry. It is only the White House, and the socialist media that claim that there is an effective system. This defies fact.
No one has seemed to to notice that the overwhelming proportion of terror in the world is committed by Muslim, and that Islam as a religion condones it. One cannot say anything of the sort about the Jews who came to US shores in WWII.
This president cannot be taken seriously. He has failed the test of honesty and truth, and cannot be trusted.
Mr. Obama left out the word legal. Legal immigrants ,not illegal immigrants, and refugees who were being persecuted, came here and made tremendous contributions
He always has difficulty calling things what they are. Illegal immigrants and Islamic terrorists are words that he can’t say. Anyone coming here,not following proper ,legal procedures is illegal, and shouldn’t be here. As for the Syrians, it is the Christian Syrians that are persecuted, not the Muslims. So why is Obama trying to bring in so many Sunni Muslims? Isis will for sure sneak in with these “refugees” from a country that is certainly not an ally. Makes you wonder. I guess as they say, one takes care of ones own
So there goes Obama bashing America again. Talking about slavery again. Talking about how evil the white man is. Here, he’s the first black President (after Bill Clinton) and he shows a lack of hakaras hatov, yet again. Pheh.
Ask some Syrian Jews about their treatment by these people while they were in Syria…
Better question to kvetcher #10
Ask some French Jews about their treatment by these people while they are in France…