Arnold's Song

 

 

 

 

 

 

By ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER | 4/30/13 5:00 AM EDT

I always loved the last line of Emma Lazarus’s beautiful sonnet that adorns the Statue of Liberty: “I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

When I arrived here, I walked through that golden door and never looked back. To me, President Ronald Reagan’s shining city on a hill was never just a beautiful metaphor.
That shining city has been my home now for 45 years, and I know how it calls to people all over the world. By the virtue of my own immigrant story, I’ve become somewhat of a spokesman for those dreamers around the world. Whenever I travel, I hear from the young people in every corner of the world about how they have such big dreams that they can’t wait to get to the same place that made my dreams possible.

As an immigrant and as the former governor of California, I feel very, very strongly that this country must address our broken immigration system. Yes, it’s a debate about national security and economics — but even more, this is a conversation about what our country means to us, and what we want it to mean to others.

(PHOTOS: 20 quotes on immigration reform)

As an immigrant, I know very well what America means to people all over the world.

From the time I was a teenager, I knew that the United States was where I was meant to be.

I saw it as a land of freedom, a land of opportunity, a land where dreams become reality.

For me, this country was all of those things and more.

The life I have lived was possible only because I immigrated to the one place where nothing is impossible.

But when I became governor of California, I saw the other side of immigration. It was impossible to avoid the reality of our broken immigration system and the impacts of illegal immigration.

(PHOTOS: 9 wild immigration quotes)

California is home to one quarter of the nation’s illegal immigrants, and nearly 1 in 10 California workers is not documented.

No matter your ideology, that’s a problem.

The majority of those immigrants are hardworking, and like me when I came here, only dream of improving their lives and contributing to our country.

But we knew it wasn’t just an issue of workers crossing into the United States to make a living. We also saw that drugs and guns went back and forth to feed the endless cycle of cartel violence. Human trafficking across the border made the lives of thousands of victims a nightmare. And there was always the threat of a terrorist sneaking across the border and committing an unspeakable act.  Read more: