THE
PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Luis. Thanks for your introduction.
Right before we came in, I said, Luis, how's your school doing? See, I
got to first know Luis when I went into inner-city Philadelphia, and he
said, I'm starting a school. I said, how's your school doing? He said,
"Oh, pretty good." He said, "Last year we had 69 of the 70 graduates
from our school go to college." (Applause.)
Luis' school is doing better than pretty good, it's doing great. And
we hold out hope to some kid, you know, that it's amazing what results
we can achieve in a society when you raise the bar, and you say, I have
hope for you; I love you. It's amazing what our country can achieve. And
so, Luis, thank you very much for your leadership, and thanks for having
me here at the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast.
I think it is fitting we come together to recognize the importance of
prayer and the importance of faith. You see, Americans are a people of
faith. And for millions of our citizens, prayer is a daily part of life.
In prayer we give thanks for the many blessings bestowed upon us by our
Creator. We're blessed with courageous young men and women willing to
defend us in time of war. We're blessed with a growing economy and
material prosperity. And we're blessed by the diversity and creativity
of millions of Hispanic Americans who enrich our great country.
We've got plenty of blessings to give thanks for, and I'm blessed by
the fact that millions of Americans, many of whom I've never seen
face-to-face, pray for me and my family. It's one of the great blessings
of America, to be President of a land of prayer. (Applause.) So this
morning we come together to give our thanks for all our blessings, and
recognize our nation's continuing dependence on divine providence.
I appreciate the sponsors of this breakfast. It's an important
breakfast. This is a time for us to come together in common purpose to
say we're humble enough to be on bended knee. I appreciate my friend,
Attorney General Al Gonzales, for joining us today. It's good to see
you. (Applause.) Mi General. The Director of the Peace Corps, Gaddi
Vasquez. Thank you for coming, Gaddi; appreciate you being here.
(Applause.) I see Senator Brownback -- I think -- yes, there he is.
(Laughter.) I know there are other members of the Senate and the
Congress who are here. Thank you all for coming today, it's really
important that you're here. And I know the participants of this
breakfast are glad you're here, as well. I appreciate all the pastors
and community leaders who are with us here today, too. Thanks for
coming.
In America, we are a people who profess many different faiths -- with
some of our citizens embracing no faith at all. In America, all are
welcome. No citizen stands above another. In America, what unites us all
is our dedication to freedom. And what brings us together today as men
and women of faith is our belief that we're all equal and precious in
the eyes of the Almighty.
I like to tell people that my job as the President is to promote the
fact that people are free to worship however you choose. See, that's
what distinguishes us from the Taliban or al Qaeda -- that we're free to
worship and that we're all equally American. If you're a Christian, Jew
or Muslim, you're equally American. If you choose not to worship, you're
equally American.
But I've also said, from my personal perspective, I rely upon the
Almighty for strength and comfort. (Applause.) The daily example of our
Hispanic communities reminds us that strong faith and strong families
can build a better future for all. We are more -- we're a more hopeful
society because men and women of Hispanic descent have put their faith
and values into action. (Applause.)
More than 200,000 Hispanic Americans serve with courage and honor in
our military, some of whom are with us today. And we thank you for your
service. (Applause.) Our government is enriched and strengthened by the
Latinos who serve here in Washington, D.C. Across America, Hispanic
leaders are serving on the front lines of our armies of compassion,
reaching out to change the lives of brothers and sisters in need,
changing this great country one heart, one soul at a time. (Applause.)
I like to remind people that government can hand out money, but
government cannot put faith in a person's heart, or a sense of purpose
in a person's life. The best way to strengthen this country is for
people such as yourself to continue to reach out to a neighbor in need,
to listen to the universal call to love a neighbor just like you'd like
to be loved yourself, to mentor to a child who needs to learn to read,
to feed the hungry, to provide shelter for the homeless.
And that's precisely what the leaders in this room do. You're
inspired by prayer, you move to action, and America is better off when
you go into our neighborhoods to reach out to those who hurt; to provide
comfort for those who are sick; to say loud and clear to a brother and
sister in need, we love you, and what can we do to help you? On behalf
of a grateful nation, I thank you for being soldiers in the armies of
compassion, and for making America a hopeful place for more of our
citizens.
Speaking about a hopeful place, it is important for us in this
important debate on immigration to remember that we've always been a
hopeful nation. We are a land of immigrants. (Applause.) We're a country
where people -- we're a compassionate people. We're also a nation of
laws, and being a nation of laws is not contradictory with being a
compassionate country. We can enforce our laws. And we can treat people
with respect and treat people with dignity and remember our heritage as
a nation.
Immigration system isn't working today, and it needs to be fixed. Our
borders need to be secure. The American people from all walks of life
expect the government to secure our border. And we will do that.
The system isn't fixed -- the system is broken because we've got too
many citizens, too many people here, too many people living in our
country, living in the shadows of our society beyond the reach of the
law. That's not -- that's not -- that's not the America I know. The
America I know is one in which people are treated with respect; the
America I know is one in which when we see something broken, we fix it.
So we'll secure our borders. We'll make sure people who hire people
illegally pay a fine. But I want our fellow citizens to understand, you
cannot secure our borders, and you cannot be a compassionate society
unless we provide a legal channel for people to work in America. We've
got people coming across our borders who want to come and work and put
food on the table for their families. (Applause.)
When I was Governor of Texas, I reminded people, family values do not
stop at the Rio Grande River. There are people who are coming to our
country who are doing jobs Americans are not doing. (Applause.) And we
need a legal and orderly system. If we want to enforce the border, we
must have a system that says you don't have to sneak across our border
in order to find work. You don't need to risk your life.
So therefore, I strongly support, and call upon the Congress to
support the temporary worker program that says you can come into our
country legally, so that we can match willing worker with willing
employer, doing jobs Americans are not doing; and you can come for a
period of time and you can work, and then you can go home in an orderly
way, as well.
The other part of this debate that's really important is, what do we
do with the folks that are here. See, there's a difference between those
who have newly arrived that are doing work and those who have been here
for quite a period of time. We've got people in this country who have
paid their taxes, own a home, whose children are becoming valedictorians
in high schools and colleges; people have been working hard.
This debate is -- there's a heated debate on this subject here in
Washington. There are some who say, well, best thing to do is just call
them citizens right off the bat. I disagree with that. It's called
amnesty. I don't think that would be fair to those who are legally here
and are waiting in line to become a citizen. You probably know many such
citizens -- they're here legally and they say, we want to be a citizen
of your country and we said, fine, get in line and wait. Granting
amnesty to those folks who have been here illegally would be unfair to
those who have been here legally. We're a nation of laws and we must
uphold the laws.
And then there are those here in Washington who say, why don't we
just find the folks and send them home. That isn't going to work. That's
not a good idea. (Applause.) It sounds simple; it's impractical. There's
a reasonable middle ground. There's a reasonable way to uphold our laws
and treat people with respect, and that is this: if you've paid your
taxes, you've been here for a while, you can prove that you've been
working, you've got a clean background; if you want to become a citizen
you pay a fine, you learn English, you learn the values and ideals of
America that have made us one nation under God. (Applause.) And then if
you want to be a citizen, you can get in line -- but in the back of the
line, not the front of the line. You can wait in line, like those who
have been legally here in America. We don't have to choose between the
extremes. There's a rational middle ground.
I call upon Congress to enact common-sense immigration reform that
enforces our border, that upholds our laws, that treats people with
respect, and remembers the greatness of America is the fact that we've
been able to come from different backgrounds, united under the common
ideals of our country and we live one nation under God. (Applause.)
For centuries, people have come to this nation because it is the land
of promise. It's a place where people can realize their dreams.
Yesterday I was in Omaha, Nebraska, at a Catholic Charities institute
that was helping people learn English and learn the ideals of our
country. I remember walking into a civics class, and the people were
slightly startled to see the President walk in. I guess it's kind of the
ultimate civics lesson. (Laughter.) But I was proud to be there. I
really was.
And we sat down with a group of folks at a table to discuss
entrepreneurship. And I went around the room, asking, how long have you
been here, and what are you doing? And I remember coming to the fellow,
Pi a -- I think his name was Federico Pi a. He said he started a couple
years ago a automobile maintenance business. He said it was a dream of
his to have his own business. I said, "How's it going?" He said, "Well,
I've employed three people, and I own my own building." Here's a man who
came to our country with a dream, and he's realizing that dream.
And what our citizens have got to understand is that if you're able
to maintain a sense of hope in the United States, and people work hard
to realize that hope, it inspires our nation as a whole. It lifts our
spirit. It reinvigorates what America is all about.
We have a great opportunity here in Washington to remember the
traditions and history of the United States of America and to uplift
that sense that America is a welcoming society, a country of law, but a
country that also says if you work hard and dream big dreams, you can
realize your dreams. And many of those who are in our country who are
working hard to realize their dreams also rely upon a higher power to
help them realize those dreams. And so I'm here to say thank you for
your prayers, thank you for your example, thank you for helping your
fellow citizens, and thank you for being great citizens of the United
States of America.
Que Dios les bendiga. (Applause.)