REMEMBERING KENNEDY, LOOKING FORWARD

As Americans mourn the passing of Senator Edward Kennedy, those of us committed to immigration reform must come to terms with the loss of a staunch ally. The first major bill Senator Kennedy managed to pass was the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 – an answer to the growing frustrations felt by immigrants from such countries as Greece, Poland, Portugal, and Italy. Critics at that time charged that immigration quotas favored Northern and Western Europeans. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 gave an equal opportunity to newcomers from all nations across the globe.

Since then, Senator Kennedy’s name has been attached to every progressive immigration bill fashioned through bipartisan negotiations, passed by Congress and signed by Presidents in those 44 years. During the same period all restrictive immigration bills drew the Senator’s ire and opposition.

Why was Senator Kennedy such an ardent advocate for immigration reform? When asked, Senator Kennedy referenced his own family history. “There was an enormous sense of discrimination against the immigrants that grew, and discrimination against the Irish—which I remember hearing about in great detail from my grandfather.” He told me that in his world the message relentlessly delivered by nativists was “…no Irish need apply for jobs. They were constantly ostracized and discriminated against, primarily against employment and every other aspect of social-political and economic life.”

Just as Kennedy’s family story helped inform his political positions, we think it’s important for Americans to probe their own family histories as the debate over immigration moves forward. Questions about where we came from and how we got here are central not only to how our own families have pursued the American Dream but also how the nation as a whole has grown in diversity and vitality since our founding.

In the coming months, as Congress attempts to broker a deal on comprehensive immigration reform, we intend to challenge ourselves and others to probe our own family stories as they intersect with the American Story. In so doing we may help strengthen a common narrative thread linking those who have already arrived to those yet to come. Sharing these stories in public conversations large and small may help engender support for the kind of Comprehensive Immigration Reform vigorously endorsed by Senator Edward Kennedy.


--“There are a lot of people who haven’t had opportunities in other places as a result of dictatorships and totalitarian regimes and discrimination. Are we going to say we refuse to let any of those individuals come in because we’ve got someone who has happened to have a more advantaged situation? I’m not sure that’s what this country is all about.” --Edward Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009)