WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME), in reflecting on the history and contributions of immigrants in America, today expressed support for the comprehensive immigration reform bill currently pending before the U.S. Senate.

“I believe this bill represents a fair-minded resolution of the current conflict over immigration. Control of the border to stem the tide of illegal immigration, penalties applied to those who broke the law, but an opportunity to earn citizenship after paying the penalty, and a lengthy period of what amounts to probation,” Senator King said.

“I don’t think this debate, Mr. President, is about fences and fines and learning English,” Senator King continued. “It’s about America itself: confusing, chaotic, creative, at times unsettling, but always erring on the side of freedom and opportunity…. The constant infusion of new blood, new people, and new ideas isn’t a threat, Mr. President. It is who we are, and it’s what made us what we are. Again, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, ‘It made us what we are: the last best hope of Earth.’”

A complete transcript of Senator King’s remarks is below:

“‘He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states, for that purpose obstructing the laws of naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migration’s hither and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.’ Mr. President, that’s the language of the Declaration of Independence. One of the grievances against King George III, in the immortal words of Thomas Jefferson, was limitations on immigration. ‘Endeavoring to prevent the population of these states – that was an original formation, an original idea, at the heart of the United States.

“Looked at in the context of our history, this debate that we’re having this week is somewhat disappointing, but not surprising. It’s serious in its particulars but it’s amazing in its totality. Here we have a room full of descendants of immigrants arguing about the conditions of immigration. Sure, most of our ancestors entered the country legally, but that was because there were virtually no laws about immigration for the majority of our history. For most of our history, if you could pay the cost, you could enter the country. That’s the fundamental premise of America.

“What are we afraid of? Are we afraid of people with courage? People with imagination? People with initiative? People with perseverance? Before coming to this body, I taught at Bowdoin College in Maine a course on Leaders and Leadership, and we attempted to define the qualities of leadership. And at the end of the course each year, we took an analysis of what we’d seen and people with courage, imagination, perseverance are leaders. Those are the people we want in this country. That’s what it takes to come here. That’s what it’s taken to come here throughout our history.

“And why are they coming? They’re coming for opportunity. They’re coming for freedom. They’re coming for a better life for their children – the same reason our ancestors came here. Isn’t this what we all want? Opportunity, freedom, and a better life for our children?

“Does this discussion affect the State of Maine? Well, yes it does. We have migrants and immigrants picking our crops in northern Maine – blueberries and potatoes and broccoli. We have a vibrant refugee and asylum-seeking community in Portland, Maine and in Lewiston. Many of those from Africa, they come here with very different cultures. We have 52 languages spoken in the Portland schools. And yes we have strains and difficulties adjusting one culture to another, but we’re making it work, and it’s making our state richer spiritually, culturally, intellectually, and yes, financially. And it’s working.

“But isn’t this discussion all about amnesty? I keep hearing about amnesty. The mail I get says, ‘Don’t let ‘em get amnesty.’ No, it’s not about amnesty. In my book, amnesty is a free pass. Amnesty is a get-out-of-jail free card. It’s forgiveness. If you’re convicted of – in Maine we call it an O.U.I, other places call it a D.U.I – if you’re convicted of driving under the influence, you pay a fine, you lose your license, and sometimes spend a few days in jail, and you’re under a suspension or probationary period for several months or perhaps even several years. But when it’s all over, when you’ve paid your fine, had your suspension, you get your license back and you move with your life and go from there. Nobody calls that amnesty when you get your license back at the end of that period, after you paid your debt to society. I would argue, Mr. President, that a fine, which is contained in this bill, and 13 years of what really constitutes probation isn’t amnesty. It’s not amnesty in anybody’s book. And people who are talking about it and calling it amnesty, that’s just not accurate.

“Why is this debate so important? Why is this issue so important? Why is this bill so important? In my view, immigration is the mainspring of America. It is our secret sauce. It is what has made us who we are. No other country in the history of the world has built the way this county was built. Except for the African-Americans who were brought here against their will and the Native Americans who were here when the Europeans arrived, everybody else here came by virtue of immigration. And that immigration has really, I believe, separated us from the rest of the world. It’s the constant flow of new energy, initiative, and ideas, different cultures, different religions, different backgrounds, and different creative energy that has really made this country what it is today. If we unduly limit or cut it off, we’re sunk.

“We’re living in a negative demographic time bomb. Last year, I believe, for the first time in American history we had more deaths than births [of white Americans]. You don’t have to be a mathematician to know that if that continues, we’ll shrink and shrivel as a society. We need immigration to add to our population, to add to the ideas and creativity.

“What would we lose if we unduly limited immigration in this country? I’m standing in the shoes of Olympia Snowe, the daughter of Greek immigrants. Before Olympia Snowe, the holder of this office was George Mitchell, the son of immigrants. Before George Mitchell, it was Ed Muskie, one of the great legislators of the 20^th century in America, the son of an immigrant Polish tailor. And we have among our numbers now a brilliant young Senator from Texas, who himself is the son of an immigrant.

“Immigrants are always going to be different and a little scary, and that’s been true throughout American history. We’ve had waves of immigration – Italians, Germans, Scottish people, Chinese, Irish, and it’s hard for us to believe, but a lot of the same sort of uneasiness about new immigrants was applied to those groups.

“In New York in the 1800s if you went to apply for a job, there might be a sign in the window of the store that said, ‘Employees Needed, Jobs Available.’ And then, in parenthesis it said in big letters: ‘NINA’ which stood for “No Irish Need Apply.” So uneasiness and fear, and yes, some prejudice against immigrants has been a part of our history. But in the end, those people are the very people who have built this country, literally, and who have made this country what it is. It’s who we are.

“Now, there’s also talk I’ve heard about wages and how all these new people are going to depress wages. And indeed a couple of weeks ago I had a meeting on my schedule in Maine with a union group, and all it said was ‘union group to discuss immigration.’ I look at it and I said, ‘Uh-oh, these folks are going to be worried about wages and they’re going to tell me this is a bad idea.’ Just the opposite. What they said was we support the bill, Senator. We want immigration reform because now we’ve got millions of people in the country who are in the shadows who don’t have the benefits of the labor protections, and that’s what’s drawing wages down. That’s what’s providing a downward motion on wages and benefits. When an employer knows that he or she has that kind of leverage over an employee, if you don’t take the low salary, or sometimes no salary at all, I’m going to report you, you’re gone, you’re going to be deported – that’s an inherently uneven and unfair playing field. That’s why I believe, and I think the C.B.O report has confirmed, that fixing this problem, putting the people that are here on a pathway to earned citizenship will actually be a gigantic stimulus to our country. So what we are doing here is very important.

“And yes, I know we need controls. We need border controls. We need to control terrorism and criminals coming into our country, and yes, I know that we shouldn’t reward breaking the law. But 13 years of probation and a fine is not rewarding law-breaking. And, again, we have to ask: why did these people break the law? They broke the law for the same reasons that our ancestors came here, and the only reason they didn’t break the law was that there was no law to break at that time. But they came here for the opportunity and for a better life for their children.

“I’ve quoted Mark Twain before on this floor, and I will probably do so repeatedly again because he captures so many thoughts so succinctly, and in this case what he said was, ‘History doesn’t always repeat itself, but it usually rhymes.’ This discussion that we’re having here today is nothing new in American history. It’s arisen time after time, and it arose in the 1840s and 1850s when indeed a whole political party came up that was designed to keep people out. It was called the Know-Nothing Party. The reason it was called that was people asked the members of the party, ‘Well what do you stand for?’ And they’d say, ‘Well I don’t know anything about that,’ because they didn’t really want us to talk about it. But it was anti-foreigner and anti-Catholic, and it was designed to lock in the ethnic and cultural society as it stood in 1850.

“Abraham Lincoln was asked when he was a member of the Illinois legislature – I wish he had been a member of the Maine legislature but I have to concede him to Illinois –  he was asked how he felt about the Know-Nothings and whether he in fact was a Know-Nothing. He said, ‘I am not a Know-Nothing,’ Lincoln wrote, ‘How could I be? How could anyone who abhors the oppression of Negros be in favor of degrading other classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring all men are created equal. We now practically read it, ‘All men are created equal except Negros.’ With the Know-Nothings in charge it will read, ‘All men are created equal except Negros and foreigners and Catholics.’ Lincoln ended pretty toughly. He said, ‘When it comes to this, I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty – to Russia, for example, where despotism can be taken pure and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.”

“Now, I’m not suggesting hypocrisy on the part of the people who are debating this bill, but I do think this is not a new debate. We can’t fear new people coming into our country. I believe this bill represents a fair-minded resolution of the current conflict over immigration. Control of the border to stem the tide of illegal immigration, penalties applied to those who broke the law, but an opportunity to earn citizenship after paying the penalty, and a lengthy period of what amounts to probation.

“I don’t think this debate, Mr. President, is about fences and fines and learning English. It’s about America itself: confusing, chaotic, creative, at times unsettling, but always erring on the side of freedom and opportunity. We have young people coming to this county who want and will achieve an education, and then we send them home. In my view, Mr. President, we should staple a green card to every diploma of every foreign student the moment they walk through that graduation line, so they can bring their ideas and creativity to our society. The constant infusion of new blood, new people, and new ideas isn’t a threat, Mr. President. It is who we are, and it’s what made us what we are. Again, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, ‘It made us what we are: the last best hope of Earth.’”

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