THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody! (Applause.) Well, hello, San Francisco! It is great to be back in California. It is great to be with all of you. I love San Francisco.
And it’s fitting that we’re here in Chinatown, just a few
miles away from Angel Island. In the early 1900s, about 300,000 people --
maybe some of your ancestors -- passed through on their way to a new life in
America. And for many, it represented the end of a long and arduous
journey -- they’d finally arrived in a place where they believed anything was
possible.
And for some, it also represented the beginning of a new
struggle against prejudice in a country that didn’t always treat its immigrants
fairly or afford them the same rights as everybody else. Obviously,
Asians faced this, but so did the Irish; so did Italians; so did Jews; and many
groups still do today.
That didn’t stop those brave men and women from
coming. They were drawn by a belief in the power of opportunity; in a
belief that says, maybe I never had a chance at a good education, but this is a
place where my daughter can go to college. Maybe I started out washing
dishes, but this is a place where my son can become mayor of San
Francisco. (Applause.) Maybe I have to make sacrifices today, but
those sacrifices are worth it if it means a better life for my family.
And that’s a family story that will be shared by millions
of Americans around the table on Thursday. It’s the story that drew my
great-great-great-great-grandfather from a small village in Ireland, and drew
my father from a small village in Kenya. It’s the story that drew so many
of your ancestors here -- that America is a place where you can make it if you
try.
And here’s something interesting: Today, more than
one in four residents born outside the United States came here from Asian
countries -- many through our family immigration system. They’re doctors
and business owners, laborers, refugees. This rec center’s namesake,
Betty Ong, was a hero on 9/11. (Applause.) But she was also the
daughter of immigrants who grew up not far from here. And we’re honored
to have her family with us here today. (Applause.)
But too often when we talk about immigration, the debate
focuses on our southern border. The fact is we’re blessed with immigrants
from all over the world who’ve put down roots in every corner of this
country. Here in San Francisco, 35 percent of business owners are
immigrants -- and your economy is among the fastest growing in the
country. That’s not an accident. That’s the impact that our
talented, hardworking immigrants can have. That’s the difference they can
make. They’re hungry and they’re striving and they’re working hard and
they’re creating things that weren’t there before.
And that’s why it is long past time to reform an
immigration system that right now doesn’t serve America as well as it should.
We could be doing so much more to unleash our potential if we just fix this
aspect of our system.
And I know out here in California that you watch the news
and you share the country’s not very sunny view of Washington these days.
For the last few months, you’ve seen a lot of headlines about gridlock and
partisan bickering, and too often one faction of one party in one house of
Congress has chosen courses of action that ended up harming our businesses, or
our economy, or our workers. Or they want to refight old political battles
rather than create jobs and grow the economy and strengthen the middle class,
or take 40 more votes to undermine or repeal the Affordable Care Act --
(laughter) -- instead of passing a single serious jobs bill, despite the fact
that Americans want us to focus on jobs and business and growth. And, by
the way, thousands of Californians are signing up every day for new health care
plans all across this state. (Applause.)
So even as we’re getting this darn website up to speed --
(laughter) -- and it's getting better -- states like California are proving the
law works. People want the financial security of health insurance.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thanks to you!
THE PRESIDENT: And even if you’re already insured,
reach out to a friend or neighbor who’s not and help them get covered.
But when it comes to immigration reform, we have to have
the confidence to believe we can get this done. And we should get it
done. And, by the way, most Americans agree. The only thing
standing in our way right now is the unwillingness of certain Republicans in
Congress to catch up with the rest of the country.
I met the other day
with the CEOs of some of America's biggest companies. And I'm positive
not all of them voted for me. (Laughter.) I'm pretty sure.
(Laughter.) Maybe some of them, but definitely not all of them. But
the thing they wanted to talk about, their top priority was the fact that we
invite the brightest minds from around the world to study here -- many of them
enrolled in the University of California system -- and then we don't invite
them to stay. We end up sending them home to create new jobs and start
new businesses someplace else. So we're training our own competition,
rather than invite those incredibly talented young people, like Geetha, to stay
here and start businesses and create jobs here.
I hear from folks who’ve been separated from their
families for years because of green card backlogs who desperately want their
loved ones to be able to join them here in America. I hear from young
DREAMers who are Americans through and through in every way but on paper, and
they just want a chance to study and serve and contribute to the nation that
they love. (Applause.)
I talk to business owners who play by the rules, but get frustrated
because they end up being undercut by those who exploit workers in a shadow
economy -- aren't getting paid overtime, aren't required to meet the same
obligations. And so those companies end up losing out on business.
Right now, I'm seeing brave advocates who have been
fasting for two weeks in the shadow of the Capitol, sacrificing themselves in
an effort to get Congress to act. And I want to say to Eliseo Medina, my
friend from SEIU, and the other fasters who are there as we speak, I want them to
know we hear you. We're with you. The whole country hears
you.
And there are plenty of leaders –- Democrat and
Republican –- who don’t think it’s fair that we’ve got 11 million people
in this country, including more than a million from Asia, with no real way to
come forward and get on the right side of the law. It’s not smart.
It’s not fair. It doesn’t make sense. And we have kicked this
particular can down the road long enough. Everybody knows it.
Now, the good news is we know what the solutions
are. There is bipartisan hope of getting it done. This year, the
Senate passed an immigration reform bill by a wide, bipartisan majority, and it
addresses the key issues that need to be addressed. It would strengthen
our borders. It would level the playing field by holding employers
accountable if they knowingly hire undocumented workers. It would
modernize our legal immigration system so that we eliminate the backlog of
family visas and make it easier to attract highly skilled entrepreneurs from
beyond our borders. It would make sure that everybody plays by the same
rules by providing a pathway to earned citizenship for those who are living in
the shadows –- a path that includes passing a background check, and learning
English, and paying taxes and a penalty, and getting in line behind everyone
trying to come here the right way.
And each of these pieces would go a long way towards
fixing our broken immigration system. Each of them has been supported by
Democrats and Republicans in the past. There’s no reason we can’t come
together and get it done.
And what's more, we know the immigration reform that we're
proposing would boost our economy and shrink our deficits. Independent
economists have said that if the Senate bill became law, over the next two
decades, our economy would grow by $1.4 trillion more, and it would reduce our
deficits by $850 billion more.
And you don’t have to be an economist to figure out that
workers will be more productive if they’ve got their families here with them,
they're not worried about deportation, they're not living halfway around the
world. This isn’t just the right thing to do -– it’s the smart thing to
do.
Of course, just because something is smart, fair, good for
the economy, and supported by business, labor, law enforcement and faith
leaders -- (laughter) -- Democratic and Republican governors, including the
Governor of this state –- just because all that is in place doesn’t mean we'll
actually get it done, because this is Washington, after all, that we’re talking
about and everything is looked through a political prism. And, look,
let's be honest, some folks automatically think, well, if Obama’s for it, then
I've got to be against it even if I was, before that, I was for it.
But I want to remind everybody, to his great credit, my
Republican predecessor, President Bush, was for reform. He proposed
reform like this almost a decade ago. I was in the Senate. I joined
23 Senate Republicans back then supporting reform. It's worth remembering
that the Senate bill that just passed won more than a dozen Republican votes
this past summer. And some of them even forget that I'm -- sometimes
people forget I'm not running for office again. Michelle doesn’t
forget. (Laughter and applause.) So you don’t have to worry
about this somehow being good for me. This is good for the
country. It's the right thing to do for the American people.
And I believe, ultimately -- not always in the short term
-- but ultimately, good policy is good politics. Look at the polls right
now, because the American people support immigration reform by a clear
majority. Everybody wins if we get this done. So there's no reason
we shouldn’t get immigration reform done right now. None. If there
is a good reason I haven't heard it.
And, by the way, if there's a better plan out there than
the one that Democrats and Republicans have already advanced together, if there
are additional ideas that would make it even better, I’m always willing to
listen to new ideas. My door is always open. But right now it’s up
to Republicans in the House to decide if we can move forward as a country on
this bill. If they don’t want to see it happen, they’ve got to explain
why.
The good news is, just this past week Speaker Boehner said
that he is “hopeful we can make progress” on immigration reform. And that is
good news. I believe the Speaker is sincere. I think he genuinely
wants to get it done. And that’s something we should be thankful for this
week. And I think there are a number of other House Republicans who also
want to get this done. Some of them are hesitant to do it in one big
bill, like the Senate did. That’s okay. They can -- it’s
Thanksgiving; we can carve that bird into multiple pieces.
(Laughter.) A drumstick here -- (laughter) -- breast meat there.
But as long as all the pieces get done -- soon -- and we actually deliver on
the core values we’ve been talking about for so long, I think everybody is fine
with it. They're not worried about the procedures. They just want
the result.
But it’s going to require some courage. There are
some members of the Republican caucus who think this is bad politics for them
back home. And they're free to vote their conscience, but what I’ve said
to the Speaker and others is, don't let a minority of folks block something
that the country desperately needs. And we can’t leave this problem for
another generation to solve. If we don’t tackle this now, then we’re
undercutting our own future.
So my message to Congress is rather than create problems,
let’s prove Washington can get something done. This is something that has
broad-based support. We’ve been working on it for a decade now.
This reform comes as close as we’ve gotten to something that will benefit
everybody, now and for decades to come. And it has the potential to
enrich this country in ways that we can’t even imagine.
And I’ll just give you one example to wrap up.
Andrew Ly is here today. Where’s Andrew? He’s around here
somewhere. There he is. Now, Andrew has got an amazing story.
Andrew grew up in Vietnam, and he and his four brothers tried three times to
flee to the United States. Obviously, the country was going through all
kinds of difficulties. So three times, they tried; three times, they
failed. On the fourth try, their boat –- filled with 140 refugees -- is
that right, Andrew -– was attacked by pirates.
But the Lys and their family eventually made it to
Malaysia, and then they eventually made it here to San Francisco. And
they learned English, and they worked as handymen, and they worked as
seamstresses. And eventually, Andrew and his brothers earned enough money
to buy a small bakery. And they started making donuts, and they started
selling them to Chinese restaurants. And with a lot of hard work and a
little luck, the Sugar Bowl Bakery today is a $60 million business.
(Applause.)
So these humble and striving immigrants from Vietnam now
employ more than 300 Americans. They’re supplying pastries to Costco and
Safeway, and almost every hotel and hospital in San Francisco. And I don't
know if Andrew brought me any samples, but -- (laughter) -- they must be pretty
good. (Laughter.)
And Andrew says, “We came here as boat people, so we don’t
take things for granted. We know this is the best country in the world if
you work hard.” That’s what America is about. This is the place
where you can reach for something better if you work hard. This is the
country our parents and our grandparents and waves of immigrants before them
built for us. And it falls on each new generation to keep it that
way. The Statue of Liberty doesn’t have its back to the world. The
Statue of Liberty faces the world and raises its light to the world.
When Chinese immigrants came to this city in search of
“Gold Mountain,” they weren’t looking just for physical riches. They were
looking for freedom and opportunity. They knew that what makes us
American is not a question of what we look like or what our names are --
because we look like the world. You got a President named Obama.
(Laughter and applause.) What makes us American is our shared belief in
certain enduring principles, our allegiance to a set of ideals, to a creed, to
the enduring promise of this country.
And our shared responsibility is to leave this country
more generous, more hopeful than we found it. And if we stay true to that
history -- if we get immigration reform across the finish line -- and it is
there just within our grasp, if we can just get folks in Washington to go ahead
and do what needs to be done -- we’re going to grow our economy; we’re going to
make our country more secure; we’ll strengthen our families; and most
importantly, we will live --
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Mr. Obama --
THE PRESIDENT: -- most importantly, we will live up
--
AUDIENCE MEMBER: -- my family has been separated for
19 months now --
THE PRESIDENT: -- most importantly, we will live up
to our character as a nation.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I’ve not seen my family. Our
families are separated. I need your help. There are thousands of
people --
THE PRESDIENT: That’s exactly what we’re talking
about.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: -- are torn apart every single
day.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s why we’re here.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Mr. President, please use your
executive order to halt deportations for all 11.5 undocumented immigrants in
this country right now.
THE PRESIDENT: What we’re trying --
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Do you agree
AUDIENCE: Obama! Obama! Obama!
AUDIENCE MEMBER: -- that we need to pass
comprehensive immigration reform at the same time we -- you have a power to
stop deportation for all undocumented immigrants in this country.
THE
PRESIDENT: Actually I don’t. And that’s why we’re here.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: So, please, I need your help.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay --
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Stop deportations!
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Stop deportations!
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. All right.
AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Stop deportations! Stop
deportations!
THE PRESIDENT: What I’d like to do -- no, no, don’t
worry about it, guys. Okay, let me finish.
AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Stop deportations! Yes, we
can! Stop deportations!
THE PRESIDENT: These guys don’t need to go.
Let me finish. No, no, no, he can stay there. Hold on a second.
(Applause.) Hold on a second.
So I respect the passion of these young people because
they feel deeply about the concerns for their families. Now, what you
need to know, when I’m speaking as President of the United States and I come to
this community, is that if, in fact, I could solve all these problems without
passing laws in Congress, then I would do so.
But we’re also a nation of laws. That’s part of our
tradition. And so the easy way out is to try to yell and pretend like I
can do something by violating our laws. And what I’m proposing is the
harder path, which is to use our democratic processes to achieve the same goal
that you want to achieve. But it won’t be as easy as just shouting.
It requires us lobbying and getting it done. (Applause.)
So for those of you who are committed to getting this
done, I am going to march with you and fight with you every step of the way to
make sure that we are welcoming every striving, hardworking immigrant who sees
America the same way we do -- as a country where no matter who you are or what
you look like or where you come from, you can make it if you try.
And if you’re serious about making that happen, then I’m
ready to work with you. (Applause.) But it is going to require
work. It is not simply a matter of us just saying we’re going to violate
the law. That’s not our tradition. The great thing about this
country is we have this wonderful process of democracy, and sometimes it is
messy, and sometimes it is hard, but ultimately, justice and truth win
out. That’s always been the case in this country; that’s going to
continue to be the case today. (Applause.)
Thank you very much, everybody. God bless you.
God bless America. (Applause.)
END
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