No group of our citizens can be denied the right to participate in the opportunities of first-class citizenship.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
When you single out any particular group of people for secondary citizenship status, that's a violation of basic human rights.
We seek the right to play our part in advancing the cause of national defense and national unity. But certainly, there can be no true national unity where one-tenth of the population is denied their basic rights as American citizens.
Millions of us, myself included, go back generations in this country, with ancestors who put in the painstaking work to become citizens. So we don't like the notion that anyone might get a free pass to American citizenship.
No other country on earth could have provided such tremendous opportunities and we should never take the privilege of our citizenship for granted.
Even though we may focus first on the rights of our own country, that does not mean that we should disregard the rights of everyone else.
We cannot allow our kids not to have an educational opportunity.
Every citizen has the real right to receive general education and professional training at no cost, something that the United States has not been able to ensure for all its inhabitants.
Whether we start with a provisional status and legal permanent residence... or we set up some other way to assimilate legally, you can't ever put in something that says, 'You can never become a citizen.' That's un-American.
No one can undermine national unity.
The constitution does not provide for first and second class citizens.