On the recordJuly 8, 2013
I will just be brief. It seems like you have the power brokers in this country act like this is such a difficult issue to solve, that this is some big, perplexing issue with immigration. The fact is immigration policy worked beautifully for hundreds of years in this country. And as recently as 1950, when my in-laws immigrated to the United States from Switzerland, it was pretty simple. You had to show that you were physically fit when you came into the country; you didn't have a transmittable disease that other people in America could pick up. That's pretty self-explanatory. You had a little bit of money in your pocket. You didn't have to be wealthy, but you had to show that you had a little bit of money on you. You also had to have a sponsor. You had to have someone here in the United States who would vouch and say if anything happens to that person, I'm the one who will be responsible, I'm the one who will answer. And the person coming in had to verify that they would not become a burden on the taxpayers of America. Because they knew when they came in, they had to come in as a net plus for the country. They couldn't take more out than what they were bringing in. That was the agreement. The other part of the agreement is, whoever came into the country had to swear under oath they would learn to speak the English language--as Mr. Yoho indicated--and they would learn the Constitution of the United States and a little bit of the American history. They had to know that.…
