And I think also in the five year point you have to ask yourself this:

Why wouldn’t we want to bring in the best and brightest people from all around the world, and say “come and take your chance in the 21st century on America”?

Become Americans. Do what people have done for centuries when they sought a new frontier, a new environment, a new opportunity… Come here. I think that we should be looking for the best and the brightest from the Indian Institute of Technology, or the great universities in China, or elsewhere. They should stay here with us, and they should start universities or start their companies here, and help us create jobs and intellectual capital in America. So I am very pro-immigration.

We've got a long way to go on the borders. And there's no excuse that we're seeing dozens of Mexicans and Hispanics dying in the Arizona desert each summer.

I think we need to set up a system for guest workers in this country. I think we need to encourage legal immigration. I think we need to discourage illegal immigration. For those undocumented aliens that are here, for those that have been good citizens that hold responsible jobs, I think we ought to have a procedure where they can work their way into citizenship. ... You need a program where people who are here and lack the documentation can one way or another work their way into citizenship. It's not a general amnesty. It's dependent on their performance and what kind of citizens they'll be.

Like his views on foreign policy, his views on domestic policy begin with principle. People who make more money should pay more taxes. We need to stop just talking about oil independence and pass laws that encourage alternative energy and mandate better gas mileage in our cars. "Our civil rights define us as a nation," and even in "a surge of fear" Congress should not have been so quick to give them up by adopting the USA Patriot Act. We're a nation of immigrants, and we should celebrate it, not let it divide us.

Excerpt from remarks to DNC Fall Meeting,
Washington, DC,
October 3, 2003

I've got a plan that's founded on the principles that we as Americans - and we as Democrats - can support and sustain. It's based on the principles that built a great nation. We're a nation of immigrants. We're an inclusive nation - we've succeeded, not by building walls around this country, but by building bridges and reaching outward.

As Dr. Martin Luther King said, "Everybody can be great because anybody can serve ... You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love."

King's vision is what the New American Patriotism is all about. It's about tapping into the power of our ideals and the generosity of our service. We must give back to this country the same way we have given to our children - the same way our immigrants built this land. By collective responsibility and sacrifice. New American Patriotism is about bringing renewed life to Dr. King's dream, to those here at home, those abroad, and to future generations.