Remarks from Philadelphia Naturalization Ceremony
By Michael J. Carroll
March 17, 2016
My name is Michael Carroll and I am honored to be here to speak to you on your very special day. My thanks to all of the distinguished people here today, especially to the most distinguished you, the newest citizens of the United States.
Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. I cannot say it enough. Welcome. These are not always welcoming times for immigrants and new Americans. Some say nasty, unwelcoming things about immigrants. Throughout our history some have spoken badly about immigrants and acted badly towards them. History has always proven them wrong.
We are here today on March 17th, Saint Patrick’s Day, a special day for many of the descendents of the millions of Irish immigrants who came here, most of them long ago. My ancestors were among them. They migrated to the Pennsylvania Coal Region to quietly take their place in America.
Today my ancestors might not be allowed to come because they were poor. They were “economic refugees” forced to leave Ireland because they were starving In The Great Hunger that had seized the Island.
The Irish were not always welcomed when they arrived. They were called lazy and criminal by some political leaders. They were pictured in newspaper cartoons as apes and monkeys. When they looked for work they sometimes found these words on business signs and in newspaper advertisements:
No IRISH NEED APPLY.
In the mid-1800s in this City of Philadelphia, not very far from where we are right now------at 4th and Vine Streets, and at 2nd and Jefferson, as well as at other places in the City-------anti-immigrant mobs burned the schools and churches of Irish immigrants and killed some of them.
When our country was very young there was a political leader in New York named John Jay. I do not know how serious he was, but Mr. Jay once suggested building a wall of brass around the country to keep out the Catholics. Mr. Jay sounds like some of the politicians running for office today!
We all have the right to talk about immigration. We have the right to discuss and debate it, to speak about jobs, language, security, culture, and the kind of country we want to be. We have the right to argue passionately. We do not have the right-----none of us has the right ever -----to say, let alone to scream hateful, bigoted words about immigrants, or even worse, to take illegal action against them.
Sometimes it looks like our country is going down the wrong road, a road closed to immigrants. But the country has always returned to the right road, the road of welcoming new Americans. History and the passing of time have always shown those who did not welcome new Americans to be wrong.
Our United States of America never was perfect and like most things human, it never will be perfect. But President Abraham Lincoln in one of the most difficult times in the history of our country-----the Civil War-----in the middle of the fight to end slavery, Lincoln said that we were fighting to save the last best hope of earth. It is your job and my job to continue Mr. Lincoln’s struggle to try to make our country the hope of the earth.
When I was a child I believed Mr. Lincoln’s words.
When I grew a little older and graduated from Mount Carmel High School in the year 1968 I began to doubt Mr. Lincoln. The country was divided. Leaders like Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were being murdered. Our country was in a War in Vietnam. In some ways it was at war with itself.
But when I grew a little older still I began to believe once more in the words of Lincoln. I was able to travel some and see a little of the world beyond the United States.
I saw places where secret witnesses who never showed their faces to the accused person could testify and cause the person to be imprisoned indefinitely.
I visited countries where the authorities could take a person away and never admit to holding them.-----Places Where you could go to the police station after someone was arrested and plead:
Where is my son?
Where is my daughter?
Where is my father, my mother? My husband, my wife, My Partner, My friend?
The official response would be:
We do not know. We have never heard of this person you seek.
This was not the case in our country.
We American Lawyers use Latin Terms Less now then years ago, but one Latin phrase survives near the peak of American law:
Habeas corpus---
I believe it literally means, “You should have the body.” I would hope to add, a live body.
Habeas Corpus means at the very least that the government, the police, must admit to holding someone. And from there Habeas Corpus might go forward to free a person wrongfully held. But first the authorities must be forced to admit that they have the person.
This is so very basic. So reasonable. But so rare in too much of the world, for too much of human history. It is a precious American treasure that we cannot afford to weaken or lose.
I have been a lawyer now for almost 40 years. I am much closer to the end of my legal career than the beginning. Some of the most important cases I have ever worked on were political asylum cases years ago----representing and defending people who were persecuted in their home countries because of their religious and political beliefs, or because of their race or ethnic group. They sought refuge here------their last best hope.
Along with my good friends Attorney Justin Loughry, and with the heart and soul of the Haitian-American community, Gladys Bruno, and with Father John McNamee, then Pastor of Saint Malachy’s Church----a North Philadelphia Parrish founded by Irish immigrants in the 1850s that never forgot its roots or its mission-----I represented Jean Pierre, a Haitian Refugee fleeing persecution because of his religious beliefs. For almost ten years we fought his case, the first two years just to free him. Once in this very courthouse we asked for a Writ of Habeas Corpus. Finally the United States of America granted Asylum to him.
In another Asylum case Attorney Peter Schneider and I represented Pedro who fled the death squads of El Salvador in the bad old days. After a long legal fight he was eventually granted asylum in the United States of America.
For both Jean Pierre and Pedro, this country, your country and mine-----was their last best hope.
Let me now finish with the word with which I began: WELCOME. Like immigrants in the past, you are welcome. You are not only welcome; you are needed, needed to continue the work, the struggle to make our country the best hope of earth.
Thank you.
Michael Carroll
3/17/16