Former President George W. Bush on Monday will host a naturalization ceremony for new U.S. citizens where he is expected to stress that immigration is a “blessing and a strength.”
The ceremony will take place at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, where 51 people are expected to take the oath of allegiance, according to the center’s website.
Both the former president and former first lady Laura Bush are expected to deliver remarks “noting the significant contributions of immigrants to our society and economy and the importance of border security.”
George Bush will refer to immigration as “a blessing and a strength” despite “the complications of policy,” Politico Playbook reported Monday.
{mosads}“Generations of new arrivals [have] left their mark on our national character, in traits that friends abroad still recognize as distinctly American: our optimism, our independence and openness to the new, our willingness to strive and to risk, our sense of life as an adventure, dignified by personal freedom and personal responsibility,” Bush will say, according to the news outlet.
“Such qualities don’t come out of nowhere,” he is expected to add. “A spirit of self-reliance runs deep in our immigrant heritage, along with the humility and kindness to look at someone less fortunate and see yourself.”
The former president will also emphasize the importance of immigrants entering the country legally, according to Politico, and will speak about the “responsibility” of elected officials to “regulate who comes in and when.”
“Across the world, good men and women still dream of starting life anew in America–people who bring energy, talent and a faith in the future,” Bush is expected to say. “Often they bring a special love of freedom, because they’ve seen how life looks without it.”
The ceremony comes amid an expected veto fight over President Trump’s emergency declaration to build a wall along the border with Mexico — a central theme of his campaign.
Trump on Friday vetoed a resolution of disapproval of his declaration that passed the House and the Senate.
In an Oval Office ceremony, Trump said Americans would be put at risk if the “dangerous” and “reckless” resolution became law.
Bush last month said that the U.S. needs to “welcome” immigrants and thank them for doing the “jobs that Americans won’t do.”
“Americans don’t want to pick cotton at 105 degrees, but there are people who want to put food on their family’s tables and are willing to do that,” he said, according to The Associated Press. “We ought to say thank you and welcome them.”