Patrick Kennedy: “I am telling my colleagues today, I never thought I would see the day when their fight was not over. But it is not over…”

“I am telling my colleagues today, I never thought I would see the day when their fight was not over. But it is not over; it is carrying on with this bill, 1428, as we speak on the floor. Last year, the Republicans put before this House a bill that said for teachers and principals to choose the students out of their classes that they thought were illegal aliens. In New England, where I represent Rhode Island, the highest illegal immigration problem is Irish overstays, Mr. Speaker, Irish overstays. Do my colleagues want to know how many teachers and how many principals and how many voting people are going to question Irish people who look like me when they go into the voting booth versus how many are they going to question that look like the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Watt) or the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Velazquez). That is what this bill is all about. It is wrong. It is un-American. We should turn it around.”