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A Republican president's words in downtown Detroit on a Monday morning 33 years ago gain fresh resonance this week.
The politician at the podium in Cobo's Hall B was a month away from winning his second White House term. Ronald Reagan presided at a naturalization ceremony for 1,548 new citizens from 52 countries.
"You're adding your voices to the chorus."
His uplifting rhetoric at that Oct. 1, 1984 ceremony salutes newcomers who "have crawled over walls and under barbed wire and through mine fields, and some of them risked their lives in makeshift boats." The president thanks those who bring to America "its culture and its heritage."
Shortly after U.S. District Judge John Feikens administered the citizenship oath for the newest Americans, Reagan proclaimed: "We don't reject them. We need them. They enrich us."
Three decades later, his message matches that of officials, executives and protesters now decrying another Republican president's selective ban on refugees and certain foreign visitors.
In that context, we revisit portions of Reagan's warm welcome in Detroit to new citizens from 52 countries, as posted in full by the American Presidency Project at the University of California-Santa Barbara. It's quoted Monday by chief media writer James Warren of the Poynter journalism news site -- who notes that Reagan was "not exactly the sort of bleeding heart liberal whom top Trump aides now revile."
'We all must still
stand for something'
My fellow Americans — and I'm very proud to be the first to address you with those words — my fellow Americans, welcome to your country. Of all the things that a president does, nothing is as rewarding as events such as this.
This is a ceremony of renewal. With you, today the American dream is reborn.
As you were saying the Pledge of Allegiance, it was clear to me, even from up here, that you weren't just reciting words that you'd memorized. You spoke with belief, and it was good to see, because the pledge not only contains the best definition of our country, it contains our greatest hope: to always remain "one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
Today you've joined a people who are among the freest on the face of the Earth. We're a nation greatly blessed. We were founded by men and women who wanted it said of our country: Here the people rule. . . .
You've joined a country that has been called "The least exclusive club in the world — with the highest dues." America was founded by men and women who understood that freedom doesn't come free. It has a cost.
'Begin your life anew'
But I don't suppose anyone would know the cost of freedom, the price of freedom, better than you who have taken this oath today.
Some of you came from places that, sadly, have not known freedom and liberty. Some of you have come from places that don't offer opportunity. Some of you are probably here because you are, by nature, adventurous. And some of you have no doubt come here for a new start, to wipe the slate clean and begin your life anew.
These strike me as all good reasons. In fact, they're the very same reasons that our forefathers came here.
And they did pretty well — so well, in fact, that two centuries after they invented this country it is still what they intended it to be: A place where the oppressed, the lost, the adventurous, can come for sanctuary and comfort and chance. . . .
Fifty million immigrants came to this country in the last 200 years. Some of the most recent have crawled over walls and under barbed wire and through mine fields, and some of them risked their lives in makeshift boats.
'New ideas and new blood'
And I know that all of them felt as the immigrants of the early part of this century felt. So many of them steamed into New York, and as they would see the approaching skyline and the Statute of Liberty, they'd crowd to the side of the boat and say, "America! America!" And in that word they heard the sound of a New World. In that word they heard everything.
And all of them have added to the sum total of what your new country is. They gave us their traditions. They gave us their words. They enlivened the national life with new ideas and new blood. . . .
Today you join a happy country that is happier for your presence. You're adding your voices to the chorus, and in doing that you've become part of a great unending song.
And I want, as president, to thank you for something before I leave. There have been times in our recent history when some of our citizens have doubted if America is still all she was meant to be. They've wondered if our nation still has meaning. And then we see you today, and it's an affirmation.
You, standing here, reveal we all must still stand for something. I know that the eldest among you is 92, and the youngest among you is 2. And we thank you all for the compliment of your new citizenship.
