SENATE RESOLUTION NO.14
Senator Runestad offered the following resolution:
1 A resolution to honor, praise, and remember the steady
2 leadership and extraordinary life of Barbara Jordan during Black
3 History Month.
4 Whereas, In 1936, Barbara Jordan was born in Houston, Texas
5 and became a lawyer, educator, and politician. Jordan was the
6 winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994; and
7 Whereas, Jordan was the first African American elected to the
8 Texas Senate after the Reconstruction era and the first southern
9 African American woman elected to the United States House of
10 Representatives; and
11 Whereas, Jordan found inspiration and purpose in the phrase
12 she often invoked, e pluribus unum, our national motto, which
Barbara Jordan
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1 expresses the aspiration to forge a unified national community.
2 Jordan believed that her country’s great unifying force was the
3 consensus that everyone must play by the democratically established
4 rules; and
5 Whereas, In 1993, seven years after the one-time immigration
6 amnesty of 1986, President Bill Clinton appointed Jordan to chair
7 the Commission on Immigration Reform; and
8 Whereas, In Jordan's initial 1994 report to the United States
9 Congress she wrote, “The Commission decries hostility and
10 discrimination against immigrants as antithetical to the traditions
11 and interests of the country. At the same time, we disagree with
12 those who would label efforts to control immigration as being
13 inherently anti-immigrant. Rather, it is both a right and a
14 responsibility of a democratic society to manage immigration so
15 that it serves the national interest”; and
16 Whereas, Jordan added a pointed assertion of the need to stop
17 illegal immigration in 1994 when she said, “Our patience is growing
18 thin toward those attempting to overwhelm the will of the American
19 people by acts that ignore, manipulate, or circumvent our
20 immigration laws. Unless this country does a better job in curbing
21 illegal immigration, we risk irreparably undermining our commitment
22 to legal immigration”; and
23 Whereas, Jordan was equally firm when she told the Washington
24 Post’s David Broder, “Any nation worth its salt must control its
25 borders”; and
26 Whereas, According to most recent estimates from the United
27 States Department of Homeland Security, only six U.S. states are
28 home to more illegal aliens than Georgia. Illegal immigration
29 presents lasting and devastating damage to our rule of law, our
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1 budget resources, our public safety and is inherently threatening
2 to the rich tradition of orderly and legal immigration into the
3 nation and our state; and
4 Whereas, In the interest of unity, and love of our nation and
5 state, we honor the life and words of Barbara Jordan and endorse
6 her 1994 advice to Congress: “As a nation of immigrants committed
7 to the rule of law, this country must set limits on who can enter
8 and back up these limits with effective enforcement of our
9 immigration law”; now, therefore, be it
10 Resolved by the Senate, That the members of this legislative
11 body honor, praise, and remember the steady leadership and
12 extraordinary life of Barbara Jordan during Black History Month;
13 and be it further
14 Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to the
15 members of the Georgia congressional delegation, the President of
16 the United States, and the Governor of Georgia.