Let's Try and Make America Fairer

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the passage of the Dream Act, and I request my Democratic and Republican colleagues to stand together to try and address this very important issue in our country.

The issue of undocumented immigrants has been plaguing this country for almost 30 years now, going back to the 1980s, when people flowed over in the thousands from El Salvador during the death squads and the civil wars during that time.

As the mayor of the city of Glen Cove back in the 1990s, we dealt with this issue in my city, on one side people saying, ``Get those people out of here,'' on the other side people saying, ``They are just trying to live the American Dream like your father did.'' My father emigrated from Italy. I am a first-generation American. ``They are just trying to live the American Dream like your family did, trying to work hard and live a better life here in this country.''

When dealing with these difficult questions, we have to rely on the fundamental principles of this country, namely, that all men and women are created equal--not all men and women with a green card or all men and women with a passport, but all men and women are created equal and are entitled to be treated with human respect and dignity.

When looking at the DREAMers, we are talking about people who came to this country under 17 years of age, who have lived a productive life, who have either graduated from high school or received a GED and have now either gone to college or are serving in the military or have been working for the past 3 years and have no criminal background.

Let's try and make this country fairer. Let's try and make ourselves the model for the rest of the world to follow and lift up these people who are productive members of our community.

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