Los Angeles (April 1, 2008) – “I think we should welcome all peaceful people to our country,” says Drew Carey in a new Reason.tv video examining the contentious immigration debate. “They get to pursue the ‘American Dream’ and we get to benefit from all the wonderful things that immigrants bring to our country – like good old fashioned soccer. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.”
While workers from Mexico draw the ire and fiery rhetoric of anti-immigration forces, Carey points out that there was no outrage or concern when English-speaking soccer star David Beckham brought his family and curling free kicks to America.
“Americans, especially, LA Galaxy fans were very excited and greeted David Beckham with open arms when he came here to play in Los Angeles, even though he took the roster spot away from some poor, hard-working American kid,” Carey says in the Reason.tv video. “So I guess we’re very welcoming when it comes to rich famous Brits. And we love our Beatles. But are we as welcoming when it comes to people from other countries?”
“You can’t get through a day of news without some politician or pundit complaining that the greatest security threat to the United States is the influx of Spanish speakers from across the border with Mexico,” says Nick Gillespie, editor of Reason.tv and Reason.com. “This anti-immigrant panic and the worries that the country is being taken over by Spanish-speakers isn’t grounded in reality. Statistics show that about 80 percent of third-generation Latinos in the United States speak English as their dominant language-and exactly 0 percent speak Spanish as their dominant language. For over 200 years, immigrants have been assimilating and making this country better and they’re still doing that today.”
Full Video Online
The Reason.tv Drew Carey video, Immigration: The Beckham Factor, is online at: http://reason.tv/video/show/62.html.
An archive of Drew Carey’s Reason.tv videos, including features on medical marijuana, school choice, poker bans, America’s middle class, and eminent domain, is here: http://reason.tv/featuredvids/.
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