Chuck Hagel Quotes

Every year, thousands of immigrants, asylum seekers and migrants assume great hardships to find safety in America. They choose our country because they see the United States as a land of justice, as a place of safety, and a beacon of hope.

America was once the safest place. I used to ask our people why they were going there. They used to say America is the safest place.

America is the last great goal of these migrations.

The great thing about the United States and the historically magnetic effect it has had on a lot of people like me is its generosity, to put it simply.

Make it [the United States] the home of the skillful, the industrious, the fortunate, the happy, as well as the asylum of the distressed ... Let but this, our celebrated goddess, Liberty, stretch forth her fair hand toward the people of the old world—tell them to come, and bid them welcome.

I really feel that my life story is a continuation of the Great American Dream - the immigrant who comes to this country and is allowed to excel. How many other countries would let me do that?

My parents came to the United States in the early years of this century as part of a wave of Russian Jewish immigrants seeking freedom and opportunity in the New World.

The conventional wisdom is that people come to the United States, and immigration is so great, and they say, 'America, what a great country.' And a lot of that is true.

We all should be proud of the United States. For those of us that came from the Dominican, we've been able to come here, work, make money and become somebody in our lives. We've gotten a huge opportunity from the U.S.

American opportunity, the treasure no thief could touch … It was the one thing he [her father] was able to promise us when he sent for us; surer, safer than bread or shelter.

I think it fortunate for the United States to have become the asylum for so many virtuous patriots of different denominations.

For a round hundred years it was a national ideal that the United States should be the asylum for the poor and the oppressed of every land. This very early came to be known as the "traditional" American attitude towards immigration.

America looked like the land of the future, separated by an ocean from the misfortunes, follies, and crimes of Europe.

As Americans, we are proud that we are a country that people run to, not from.

America is the greatest country on Earth - and when people vote with their feet, they come here.

If America oppresses, why do so many people risk their lives coming here to be oppressed?

For millions on the outside looking in, this is where they want to live - America.

Brazil's got everything to be a great country for Brazilians and for immigrants.

Everyone wants to work in America. Maybe not blockbusters or Terminator, but to have the choice.

For generations, America has served as a beacon of hope and freedom for those outside her borders, and as a land of limitless opportunity for those risking everything to seek a better life. Their talents and contributions have continued to enrich our country.

Living in New York City, I am reminded by the Statue of Liberty that the United States of America has always welcomed those yearning to breathe free and seek a better life.

I'm constantly saying to myself, 'I'm lucky I was born in the United States.'

In Romania, of course, gymnastics is among the most popular sports, and my parents had a dream of escaping the Ceausescu regime and giving their child a better life. So they came to the United States and put me in gymnastics.

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

My parents were lured to America by the democracy here promised. In our family, freedom was a word to conjure by. Hoping for larger privileges for the growing family of children, they brought them to the New World, the world of many intellectual as well as material advantages.