Tuberville: “Assimilate or Go Home”

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) delivered impassioned remarks on the Senate floor about the United States' broken immigration system. In his speech, Sen. Tuberville explained how living in the United States is a privilege, not a right, and argued that federal immigration policy should stop rewarding those who break our laws, reject our values, and disrespect our institutions. He previewed legislation he will introduce this week called the ASSIMILATION Act, which would end chain migration, eliminate the diversity visa lottery, establish a statutory national-interest standard, and make additional reforms to protect American workers.

Read the speech below or watch on YouTube and Rumble.

"Mr. President, we're blessed to live in a nation that has withstood the test of time for 250 years. This country has had its fair share of problems. We've been able to overcome […] because we believe in America and what it stands for. America was founded on a core set of values that have persisted through the years and have given hope to so many who were seeking a better life. American values are rooted in liberty, equality, opportunity, self-governance, and the rule of law.

Liberty means freedom, freedom from tyranny, whether it's political, religious, economic. Since our founding individual freedoms have been the foundation of American society, you're free to choose, what you believe, how you worship, what kind what works you pursue, and how you build a life for yourself. Equality means that in a country, we don't have a caste system. We don't tell people they're stuck where they're born. We believe all men are created equal and everyone has the opportunity to succeed regardless of their background-an opportunity that makes this country very special.

I used to tell my players all the time this country owes you nothing but an opportunity to achieve what you wanna achieve. Now, you might get knocked to the ground and not make it to that point as soon as you'd like, but the country that you love so much, that we all love so much, gives that chance to get back up and go again. We're the only country that does that out of 200 in the world we live in. What you decide to do with that opportunity after you achieve it is up to you. That's the American Dream. That's what this country is about-the belief that if you're willing to work hard, you can build a better life. The American dream is unique to this country alone.

For centuries now, people have fled dictatorships, failed governments, and oppression to come here because they knew that dream was real. And then there's a rule of law, the cornerstone for why our country is so great. No one is above the law, not citizen, not newcomer, not even the government itself. In America, if you live here, you are expected to follow the law. Period. Those are the values that have made this country great. Those are the values that drew generations of immigrants to our shores [for] over 250 years.

Sadly, today, we are not seeing immigrants with the same mentality moving to this country. For most of our history, people have come here to become Americans. They came here to assimilate. They worked hard. They learned. They followed the law, and they contributed. That's what this country is all about. Today, we're seeing large numbers, and I mean large numbers, of people coming into this country with no intentions of assimilating into our culture or our way of life. People from third world hellholes are being let into this country who have no desire to adapt to our way of life. They not only refuse to work, but they also choose to take advantage of Americans welfare system, forcing hardworking Americans to bank roll their lives. The question must be asked: why are we letting these people who don't share values and refuse to assimilate? Why are we letting them in our country? The word assimilate is often treated with suspicion because it is often related to racism. But assimilation has absolutely nothing to do with race.

It's about values. Assimilation doesn't mean you abandon your heritage or your faith or forget where you're from. It's about embracing a new shared belief system. People that came here in the past understood this. Examples would be Italian Americans, Greek Americans, German Americans who brought elements of their heritage with them, but they understood that they had new responsibilities. When they embraced this country, they embraced our values. Respect the law, be committed to a constitutional government, and participate in the civic duties that enable a society to remain free. So why are we letting people in this country that don't want to assimilate? Why are we doing that?

Immigration is a privilege. It's not an entitlement. This country doesn't owe anyone entry. We don't owe anybody. And somewhere along the way, we lost the ability to discern who we choose to welcome into our great country. We lost it somewhere. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to solve this problem. It really doesn't. Those who come to this country that want to assimilate, embrace the nation's core center values, and contribute to our society should be welcomed with open arms because we are all descendants of immigrants who love this country. We should accept the best and the brightest. Those who are hard workers, intelligent, with skill sets who can provide a quality service to their communities. And people who understand and share the core American values that we all have. But the problem is for whatever reason Western Civilization has been guilt trip into accepting anyone who wants to come here. And that's wrong. That's not what this country is built on.

The Biden and Obama administration brought in millions of immigrants who have done nothing to make the United States a better place to live. Instead, they have been like leaches, taking advantage of the welfare system and are treating hard work in American taxpayers as their personal ATM machine. In the last two decades, we've seen a dramatic, I mean, a dramatic transformation in our society. It's changed and not in a good way. Every time you turn on the news today, you hear about immigrants, robbing stores, killing Americans, sexually assaulting and raping women, protesting, carrying their home country flags and still the American flag. And where are these immigrants coming from? Who are committing most of these crimes? Well, you guessed it, from third world countries.

These aren't the kind of people we should be letting into the greatest country on the face of the earth. It's a privilege. Not a right to live in the United States or America. A privilege. But unfortunately, our immigration system is absolutely broken. How many more rapes, assaults, murders, stories of these people scamming American taxpayers out of their money do we need to hear before we say enough is enough? Our immigration system is broken, but no one wants to fix it-nobody in this building or on the other end of this building.

When attempts are made to fix it, Washington resists. Take Temporary Protective Status, for instance. The U.S. House of Representatives, a few weeks ago, voted to extend Temporary Protective Status for roughly 250,000 Haitians. When the Trump administration announced that they were going to terminate the Temporary Protective Status of Haitians, the D.C. swamp had an absolute meltdown. 'You can't do that. These will be voters for us.' As usual, the Swamp came out in full force to ensure that these people remain on American soil, putting American taxpayers in harm's way. According to a House judiciary committee report 91 percent of Haitians with Temporary Protective Status, 91 percent, entered the United States illegally, and over 50 percent of them are in households that [are on] at least one welfare program. 53 percent. Mind boggling.

Temporary Protective Status was never supposed to be a permanent amnesty program. It was supposed to help people temporarily, give them time to get back on their feet, but that's not what's happening. Programs meant to be temporary are becoming permanent right in front of our eyes, and we're not doing anything about it. Policies meant to be limited are being expanded. American taxpayers are left out in the cold, and the American people are paying every single dime for this huge amnesty bill. Let me be clear about something, this country is a Christian nation. We are called to love our neighbor and minister to the poor. That's our job. But we have enough Americans in this country who are in poverty for us to look after, and [we have] barely enough money to take care of them. We can't take care of all poor people in the world, folks. That can happen. For us to remain a society that's free with values, we have to take care of our own first, and then we take care of other people.

Another problem we're having is immigrants who come here and bring their radical beliefs with them. I've talked to this on the floor many times in the last few months. These people openly chant, death to America, and yet we allow them to live here among us. You can't make it up. Middle Easterners who are predominantly Muslim come here, take advantage of our welfare system, and they refuse to assimilate. Their entire goal is to turn this country into a Muslim country and to be governed by the Islamic Cult and Sharia Law. Now, they are good Muslims who come to this country that embrace the values that we have, contribute to our society, don't follow Sharia Law, and they are 100 percent welcome to be here. This is about a group of people that want to change our country and wanna kill every American in this country. […]

The Center for Immigration Studies published a report stating that more than half of the non-citizen households from the Middle East use at least one major welfare program. Think about that. We're having to fund most of these people that are coming here. Islamists aren't coming here and looking for a better life. […]
They're coming here to impose their radical beliefs on us and to mooch off the American taxpayers. Game. Set. Match. That's exactly why they're here. They're coming to impose everything they possibly can on the United States of America, get by with it and tear us down at the same time. They have no interest in adapting to American national identity. They wanna change the national identity to mirror their death cult Islamic beliefs. You heard that. They're here to kill us all. They believe that. Just look at what's happening in Europe.

They stopped enforcing their own laws. Europe stopped enforcing immigrants to adapt to their way of life. And now they're dealing with the consequences. We're about 10 years behind Europe. Europe's gone. They're being run by a different cult. They've lost their values. They've lost everything that was built in Europe […] because they closed their eyes and they thought that they were doing the right thing, and politicians got them in trouble. We should be learning from that, not repeating it. Americans open your eyes. Look, what's happening. We're losing. We're losing our country as we know it to people that want to destroy us. But this issue doesn't affect today. It affects us today and future generations.

Mass migration is destroying our educational system. It is destroying it. Go to any high school and I can show you examples. More and more American kids are entering the classroom, hearing multiple languages being spoken around them every day and have a difficult time making friends because they are now the minorities in the schools. We're having enough problems with our education system when our kids can't understand the language that the other people are speaking. That goes with our higher education who have teachers and professors coming from other countries that can't speak English that are teaching our kids in higher education, and our kids are paying a fortune to go these four-year schools. Enough's enough.

This is an English language country, and that's how we speak. That's how we communicate. Approximately 5 million students in US public schools are classified as English learners. That many can't speak English in our public schools across the country. It is destroying us. 10-11 percent of [the] K-12 population and growing every day, and we got our eyes closed. Our kids already have enough problems. Many of our kids were set back during COVID, it was disastrous. What the federal government did to our kids of closing our schools was a disaster, and it was our fault. People in this building right here. But we're running and hiding now when the truth is coming out. Now, our kids are being left behind the classroom because school resources are being reallocated for kids that come from other countries. We need to be spending money on our kids to educate them and give them better lives. We're leaving our kids behind, and our country will not survive without teaching and developing the next generation.

The purpose of our immigration system should be to benefit hardworking American taxpayers. Do you think mass immigration is benefiting this country? Absolutely not. There's not one benefit to it. It's the exact opposite of what we should be doing. Mass immigration is a leech that is slowly bleeding this country dry and politicians and the people across the country better open their eyes. There has been a lot of talk over the past few years about deportation. I'm 100 percent [supportive] of what President Trump's doing. They got to go home. We can't afford them. American taxpayers, they need help. We can't help people if we can't help ourselves. We also need to have a national conversation about who we want in this country in the first place. The American taxpayer deserves that right to say who's here and who's not. Politicians are taking credit for letting all these people in. They need to be taking credit for destroying this country. We need to be asking ourselves what is our national identity? Many of our immigration laws were made decades ago. They were made in a different time.

That is why, tomorrow, I will be introducing the Assimilation Act. My bill is simple. It says America has a right to set immigration policy in the national interest. It says our system should favor people who will work hard, contribute, support themselves, and strengthen the United States of America. It says we should move away from chain migration policies and away from visa lottery systems that treats every entry into the United States like a raffle drawing. What an embarrassment. It says legal immigration should place higher value on skilled merit, economic contribution, and the ability to succeed without becoming a dependent on the American taxpayers. It says temporary worker programs should serve the American economy, not undercut the American worker. It says we should take visa overstays seriously, address pro abuse, and restore credibility to the rule of law. And it says that citizens in the United States should once again reflect commitment, character, and real civic integration.

None of this means America shuts the door. America has always been a nation that can strengthen immigration. History proves that. But it works only when our borders are enforced, the rule of law is followed, and when those who desire to come here build a better life and are expected to assimilate into American culture, not destroy our culture. Without those conditions, the logic of immigration begins to change. Obama and Biden were hellbent on permanently changing the immigration landscape of this country. They were letting them in right and left. A nation can't survive and won't survive when mass migration occurs, and there isn't any expectation of assimilation. It's never talked about. Come on in. Do whatever you want. Preach whatever you want. Teach whatever you want. Destroy whatever you want. We're not gonna watch you. We'd better open our eyes. There is no obligation for immigrants to commit to participate in the way Americans live. […] We have to start pushing assimilation.

So, in that case, I believe we're seeing this right now in the United States. Immigration is no longer a good thing for our society. It's not doing us one bit of good. It is just destroying the American dream. It's just destroying our generation and the generations to come. There's a reason why we stopped all immigration in the 1920s. Did you know that? We stopped it all for the same reasons. We had to get back on our feet. Folks we're $39 trillion in debt and rising. We can't afford these people that can't help themselves. Mass migration without assimilation will erase our country's identity. We're turning into Europe and in serious danger of losing the core of who we are.

I wanna be clear about this, United States has zero obligation to roll out the red carpet for third world countries around the world. Zero. We're here to help America, first. We have enough of our own problems without taking up everybody else's. America is a nation built on shared values. People from all walks of life could come here and live peacefully because they understood what being an American meant. Do they know that today? That's what has always made [our country] an exception because people know what America is about, our core principles. But in a country as diverse as ours, it can only function properly when we accept the duties of citizenship and our constitution. The United States is at a crossroads. We will decide to try sharing a common civic identity or we will go the way of Europe and let mass migration without assimilation erode the civic duties and responsibilities Americans boldly carried out over the last two and half centuries.

The national conversation around immigration and citizenship has been framed almost entirely in terms of giving rights, protection, benefits, while saying less about loyalty, duty, and shared obligation to make this country better. A free country cannot survive solely on entitlement. This country was built on hard work.

It requires citizens who understand that American life is not just something to receive, it is something to uphold. If the United States is to remain what it has long claimed to be, it must be clear about the answer to a simple question. What does it mean to be an American? And we must be willing to insist that the answer still matters. Because when a nation loses the courage to define itself, it invites others to redefine it beyond recognition. We cannot allow people to redefine our country. Thank you, Mr. President, and I yield the floor."

Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans' Affairs, HELP and Aging Committees.

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