Bill Clinton

America has been strengthened by wave after wave of immigrants, including the recent influx of Asian and Hispanic immigrants, states Bill Clinton in the following viewpoint. Most immigrants, he asserts, work hard and contribute much to America’s culture and economy. Anti-immigrant sentiments and measures that attempt to exclude legal immigrants from American civic life are discriminatory and unfair, Clinton maintains. The United States must protect immigrants’ rights to housing, education, and health care; in the meantime, immigrants must take on the task of becoming responsible American citizens. Clinton was the forty-second president of the United States. This viewpoint is excerpted from his commencement address at Portland State University, Oregon, on June 13, 1998.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to Clinton, how many immigrants come to the United States each year?
2. Why is it...