Barbara Jordan Quotes
One thing is very clear: Illegal immigrants are not entitled to benefits.
United States, Congress, Commission on Immigration Reform. U.S. Immigration Policy: Restoring Credibility. Government Printing Office, 1994.
The quote is often misreported as “I am, you know, adamantly against illegal illegal immigration."
The most commonly cited part of this quote is in bold. The full quote is provided for context.
He introduced his bill that would provide Amnesty for many undocumented immigrants--oven called "illegal aliens". He started the "Dreamers"-the 2 million children who were brought to America at very young ages by parents who did not enter legally. They have grown up in America and it is the only home they have ever known. Many do not even speak or are not literate in the language of their birth country and their only roots and allegiances are to the United States. There was a very loud and passionae minority of South Carolina voters who wanted these children to be departed to countries most have no memories or knowledge of--to punsh them for the "sins" of their parents.
Barbara Charline Jordan was an American lawyer, educator and politician who was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. A Democrat, she was the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction and the first Southern African-American woman elected to the United States House of Representatives. She was best known for her eloquent opening statement at the House Judiciary Committee hearings during the impeachment process against Richard Nixon, and as the first African-American as well as the first woman to deliver a keynote address at the 1976 Democratic National Convention. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous other honors. She was a member of the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors from 1978 to 1980. She was the first African-American woman to be buried in the Texas State Cemetery. Jordan's work as chair of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, which recommended reducing legal immigration by about one-third, is frequently cited by American immigration restrictionists.
