I kind of want to leave a quote from actually a president whose name is Ronald Reagan, he was a Republican and he actually did celebrate immigrants in the final speech that he made. And this I want you to hear this, and I want the listeners to just keep an open mind when I read this quote, to show kind of the importance of hope when it relates to the immigration space. I think it's very important that we have hope. Hope is the only way to keep this going, in my opinion.
Yes, we are all dealt blows in life. But that at the end of the day, what I tell my clients is, look, the only way we can go is up. And so before I get into that, but literally, Ronald Reagan said this and it's just a quick minute, but I want to really resonate on every word that I say. What this president said was a Republican, but also was just a great president, in my opinion, who really celebrate immigrants.
And he really shared a story of the conversation he had and with with a with an individual. And here's the quote. He basically said a number of years ago, an American student traveling in Europe looking East German ship across the Baltic Sea, one of the ship's crew members from East Germany, a man in his 60s, pop up a conversation with the American student. After a while, the student asked the man how he learned such good English, and the man explained that he had once lived in America.
He said that for over a year he had worked as a farmer in Oklahoma and California, that he planted tomatoes and picked ripe melons. It was, the man said, the happiest time of his life, while the student who had seen the awful conditions behind the Iron Curtain blurted out the question, Well, why did you ever leave? I had to, he said the war ended, the man had been in America as a German prisoner of war.
Now, I don't tell this story to make the case for former POWs. Instead, I tell this story just to remind you of the magical, intoxicating power of America. We may sometimes forget it, but others do not. Even a man from a country at war with the United States, while held here as a prisoner to fall in love with us. Those who become American citizens love this country even more. And that's why the Statue of Liberty lifts her lamp.
To welcome them to the golden door is old men and women yearning for freedom and opportunity to leave their homelands and come to a new country to start their lives over. They believe in the American dream and over and over they make it come true for themselves, for their children and for others. They give more than they receive the labor and succeed, and often their entrepreneurs are. Their greatest contribution is more than economics because they understand in a special way, glorious it is to be an American.
They renew our pride and gratitude to the United States of America, the greatest, freest nation in the world, the last, best hope of man and woman on earth.
And so I wanted to leave you with that, because this country, I think good does win over evil at times and there are human humanitarian implications. But the end of the day, I think the country I think overall and the constituency do understand that immigrants provide value. So, Charlayne, I heard you.
I hear you still. And I hope you continue to join us on this academy and I hope you have that sense of hope that will hopefully you will have not only for your family, but also for other immigrants in this great country. So thank you for joining us. I want to say thank you to Attorney Wynter for having me on the panel today. Thank you to all of our moderators and our special guests and all of our listeners. I hope you learned something today.
Knowledge is power. Like I always say. Reach out to your congressional members, continue fighting the good fight and God bless America and God bless you all. We all go through. This is US immigration attorney Hardam Tripathi and I'm done speaking.
