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The President:Thank you to Senator Menendez,
Congressman Hinojosa, and the entire CHC for inviting me.
Everybody, you can have a seat, take a load off.
(laughter)
I want to congratulate tonight's
outstanding honorees -- Jose Diaz-Balart --
(applause)
Eliseo Medina --
(applause)
-- and Juliet Garcia.
(applause)
I want to thank all the other members of Congress
who are here tonight, including the outstanding Nancy Pelosi.
(applause)
Although I have to say Nancy Pelosi was really
talking mostly about the San Francisco Giants --
in a Nationals town.
So that just shows her courage.
(laughter)
I want to give a special thanks to two young men
who rode over with me from the White House tonight.
Luis and Victor are CHCI interns and fellows.
(applause)
They are also DREAMers,
living and working in the country they call home,
and making it a better place for all of us.
Their stories are inspiring.
And along with the other CHCI fellows,
they give me great hope for the future.
They make me optimistic about what America is all about.
Six years ago, I came here as a candidate for this office
and I said if we worked together, we could
do more than just win an election -- we could rebuild
America so that everybody, no matter what you look like,
no matter what your last name is, no matter
what God you worship, no matter who you love --
everybody is free to pursue their dreams.
(applause)
And that's exactly what we set out to do.
And today, there is progress that we should be proud of.
I gave a long speech this afternoon about it because
sometimes we don't focus on what has happened over
these last six years.
Over the past four and a half years,
our businesses have created 10 million new jobs -- the longest
uninterrupted stretch of job creation in our history.
(applause)
In the spring, our economy grew faster than any
time since 2006, and there are more job openings today than
at any time since 2001.
(applause)
And we are going to keep working as hard
as we can to help create good, middle-class jobs even
faster. Six years ago, I told you we would confront the crisis
of overcrowded classrooms and underfunded schools,
and help more families afford higher education.
And since 2000, we have cut the Latino dropout rate
by more than half.
(applause)
Because dropouts are down,
today our high school graduation rate is the highest on record.
And since 2008, the rate of college enrollment
among young Latinos has risen by 45 percent.
(applause)
Six years ago, I said we'd take on a broken health
care system that left one out of three Hispanics uninsured.
Today, millions more Americans have quality,
affordable health insurance that they can count on.
(applause)
Over the last year alone,
about 10 million Americans gained health insurance.
And that includes millions of Latinos.
(applause)
Six years ago, I told you we'd restore the idea
at the heart of America that we're in this together,
that I am my brother's keeper, and my sister's keeper.
Last year, poverty among Latinos fell, and incomes rose.
And this week, I launched the My Brother's Keeper Community
Challenge, asking every community in our country
to publicly commit to strategies that will help put our young
people on the path to success, from cradle to career.
(applause)
So the point I want to make is the progress we've
made has been hard, sometimes it's been slower than we want,
but that progress has been steady and it has been real.
We have done big things together,
and we're going to do more.
And tonight, I want to make something clear:
Fixing our broken immigration system is one more,
big thing that we have to do and that we will do.
(applause)
Now, I know there's deep frustration in many
communities around the country right now.
And I understand that frustration because I share it.
I know the pain of families torn apart because we live with
a system that's broken.
But if anybody wants to know where my heart is or whether
I want to have this fight, let me put those questions
to rest right now.
I am not going to give up this fight until it gets done.
(applause)
As Bob mentioned, I've taken so far actions --
I'm about to get to that.
About to get to it.
(applause)
(audience interruption)
The actions that we've taken so far --
(audience interruption)
-- you're going to want to hear it,
you'll want to hear what I say, rather than just --
the actions that we've taken so far are why more than
600,000 young people can live and work without
fear of deportation.
(applause)
That's because of the actions I took
and the administration took.
(applause)
Because of the coalition that we built
together, business and labor, faith and law enforcement,
Democrats and Republicans -- created a bipartisan bill
and got it through the Senate last year.
When states like Alabama and Arizona passed some
of the harshest immigration laws in history,
my Attorney General took them on in court and we won.
(applause)
So you know what we've done together.
You know that we've done it despite what is possibly
the most uncooperative House of Representatives in history.
(applause)
If House Republicans brought the Senate bill up for
a vote today, it would pass today; I would sign it today.
And they know it.
(applause)
But instead, they've been sitting
on it for more than a year.
They voted to strip DREAMers of new protections
and make them eligible for deportation -- not once,
but twice they voted that way.
And this summer, when a wave of unaccompanied minors crossed
part of our southwest border, my administration matched
compassion for kids with a firm message to families.
Today, fewer parents are sending their children on that
perilous journey than they were at this time last year,
and we're working to give more kids the chance to apply
for asylum in their home countries and avoid
that journey altogether.
(applause)
But while we worked to deal with an urgent
humanitarian problem, while we actually did something
about the problem, Republicans exploited the situation
for political gain.
And in June, as all this was going on,
Speaker Boehner told me he would continue to block
a vote on immigration reform for at least
the remainder of this year.
Audience: Booo --
The President: Now, don't boo, vote.
(applause)
I've said before that if Congress failed to live
up to its responsibilities to solve this problem,
I would act to fix as much of our immigration system
as I can on my own, and I meant what I said.
So this is not a question of if, but when.
Because the moment I act -- and it will be taking place between
the November elections and the end of the year -- opponents
of reform will roll out the same old scare tactics.
They'll use whatever excuse they have to try to block any attempt
at immigration reform at all.
And we have to be realistic: For any action to last,
for it to be effective and extend beyond my administration
-- because I'm only here two more years -- we're going
to have to build more support of the American people
so that it is sustainable and lasting.
And so I am going to be spending the next month,
month and a half, six weeks, eight weeks -- I'm going
to be spending that time not just talking about what
we've done for the economy, but explaining why
immigration reform is good for our economy, and why
it's good for everybody.
(applause)
And when opponents are out there saying who
knows what, I'm going to need you to have my back.
I'm going to need you to have my back.
I'm going to need you to keep putting pressure on Congress,
because the fact of the matter is no matter how bold I am,
nothing I can do will be as comprehensive or lasting
as the Senate bill.
Anything I can do can be reversed by the next President.
To move beyond what I can do in a limited way,
we are going to need legislation.
And if we want that legislation to happen sooner rather than
later, then there's one more thing I need you to do -- I've
got to have you talk to your constituents and your
communities, and you've got to get them out to vote.
(applause)
You already know how powerful the Latino vote can be.
(applause)
In 2012, Latinos voted in record numbers.
The next day, even Sean Hannity changed his mind
and decided immigration reform was a good idea.
(laughter)
But despite that record-breaking turnout,
only 48 percent of Hispanic voters turned out.
Fewer than half.
Fewer than half.
So the clearest path to change is to change that number.
Si, se puede ... si votamos.
Yes we can ... if we vote.
(applause)
You know, earlier this year,
I had the chance to host a screening of the film Cesar
Chavez at the White House, and I was reminded that Cesar
organized for nearly 20 years before his first major victory.
He never saw that time as a failure.
Looking back, he said, "I remember...
the families who joined our movement and paid dues long
before there was any hope of winning contracts...
I remember thinking then that with spirit like that...
no force on Earth could stop us."
That's the promise of America then,
and that's the promise of America now -- people who love
this country can change it.
America isn't Congress.
America isn't Washington.
America is the striving immigrant who starts a business,
or the mom who works two low-wage jobs to give
her kid a better life.
America is the union leader and the CEO who put aside
their differences to make the economy stronger.
America is the student who defies the odds to become
the first in a family to go to college --
(applause)
-- the citizen who defies the cynics and goes
out there and votes --
(applause)
-- the young person who comes out of the shadows
to demand the right to dream.
That's what America is about.
(applause)
And six years ago, I asked you to believe.
And tonight, I ask you to keep believing -- not just
in my ability to bring about change, but in your ability
to bring about change.
Because in the end, "dreamer" is more than just a title -- it's
a pretty good description of what it means to be an American.
(applause)
Each of us is called on to stand proudly
for the values we believe in and the future we seek.
All of us have the chance to reach out and pull this country
that we call home a little closer to its founding ideals.
That's the spirit that's alive in this room.
That's the spirit I saw in Luis and Victor,
and all the young people here tonight.
That spirit is alive in America today.
And with that spirit, no force on Earth can stop us.
Thank you, everybody.
God bless you.
God bless America.
(applause)