The United States Represents Hopeful New Beginnings

Floor Speech

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Ms. TOKUDA. Mr. Speaker, earlier this month, I stood on a farm in Haleiwa for the blessing of the Pacific Gateway Center's new land. I looked out at the fields and at the farmers and families gathered there ready to work, grow food, and to build something of their own. It was immigrants focused on strengthening their community, our economy, and creating a better life for their children.

As I stood there, I could not stop thinking: This is it. This is America. This is what a true celebration of 250 years of America looks like. It is a more honest portrait of our country than any gilded ballroom or caged fight on the White House lawn could ever offer: hands in the soil, families laying down roots, people arriving with hope, working hard, and building a life for their children and their grandchildren.

That is my family's story, too. I am a Yonsei, a fourth-generation of Okinawan descent. Like so many other Japanese, Filipino, Chinese families in Hawaii, agriculture and the plantations were the gateway that allowed us to come, to work, to lay down our roots, and to build a real future for our children.

I would not be standing here today as a Member of Congress if my family had not been given that chance, had that pathway not existed for so many immigrants like us.

For so many, somewhere in our family's story, someone got here. Someone arrived with the same hope, the same courage, and the same belief that tomorrow could be a better day than today, that their children could go further than they did, that this country could be a place where hard work, sacrifice, and community still meant something.

That is where this administration has twisted the story. They want us to believe immigrants are the enemy, but when you attack immigrant children and women and workers and families, you are attacking the very people who helped create our American identity.

When you detain families, separate children, strip people of their rights, and tell whole communities they do not belong, you are not protecting America. You are betraying her promise. They can try to paint over the truth. They can try to dress it up, cover the cracks with gold, or write immigrants out of the story, but the truth is carved into America's foundation: America's heritage is, in fact, immigration.

It is arrival. It is hard work. It is sacrifice. It is the belief that tomorrow can be better than today. That is what America first should mean, not pitting immigrant against nonimmigrant.

By the way, unless you are indigenous to this land, you are, in fact, an immigrant. Not turning families into targets, but creating opportunities and pathways for the people who came here, laid down their roots, helped build this country, and still carry it forward every single day. That is what gives me hope.

Because there are still people in this country who have not lost sight of that dream. I saw them in Haleiwa. I saw people and families choosing work, choosing community, choosing to build, and choosing courage. I saw people making sure that pathway is still there for the next family, the next generation, and the next person looking for a chance.

That is the America I believe in. An America where immigrant families are not treated as threats, but recognized as part of who we are. An America that understands the American Dream has never been about where you came from. It is about what you are willing to build when you get here.

As we celebrate National Immigrant Heritage Month and prepare to mark 250 years of this country, let us tell the truth: Immigrants are not outside America's story. They are the story. They are not a threat to America's heritage. They are America's heritage.

If we are serious about honoring 250 years of America, then we have a responsibility to fight for the people still reaching for that same promise--to lay down roots, to build a better life, to raise a family in safety and dignity, and to contribute, and with hope to belong to this country.

Mr. Speaker, I saw hope that day in Haleiwa. I saw the American Dream. That is what I am holding on to.

It is up to each and every one of us to carry on the dream of our forefathers. As long as there are people who carry that dream forward, and as long as we have the courage to protect it, that dream will continue.

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