Immigration reform is currently blocked in the GOP House. Bidens quote of TR (unacknowledged from 1908) went as follows, Americanism is not a question of birthplace or creed or a line of descent. Its the question of principles, idealism, and character. Teddy Roosevelt did believe this, but he also championed an immigration policy much more in line with the current conservative position than with the Obama White House. Biden asserted that based on TRs standard, 11 million undocumented persons are already Americans, in my view. This was such a gross distortion of the record that it went well beyond the Vice Presidents well-known gift for gaffes. It was a blatant attempt to mislead the public by claiming a false endorsement. For Teddy Roosevelt, not all immigrants were the same; they did not all have the attributes cited in the quote misused by Biden. As he said in his annual message to Congress as President in 1905, We cannot have too much immigration of the right sort and we should have none whatsoever of the wrong sort....The prime need is to keep out all immigrants who will not make good citizens. The laws now existing for the exclusion of undesirable immigrants should be strengthened, Adequate means should be adopted, enforced by sufficient penalties, to compel steamship companies engaged in the passenger business to observe in good faith the law which forbids them to encourage or solicit immigration to the United States. His views did not change over the course of his career. As early as 1888, he said in a speech in New York City, I wish Congress would revise our laws about immigration. Paupers and assisted immigrants of all kinds should be kept out; so should every variety of Anarchists....We must soon try to prevent too many laborers coming here and underselling our own workmen in the labor market; a good round head tax on each immigrant, together with a rigid examination into his character would work well................ Read more: Family Security Matters familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/teddy-roosevelts-real-views-on-immigration?f=must_reads#ixzz2xmW97072 Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 02:07:53 +0000