Thomas L. Friedman

But the other side of that was that as the world's biggest economy, we benefited enormously from the economic growth and disproportionately over the last 75 years.

And we attracted the world's best brains and most energetic people.

You know, last time I checked, Steve, God distributed brains equally around the world.

What he didn't distribute equally is countries that would openly embrace those brains.

And that's been America's single greatest competitive advantage.

Look at who runs our biggest tech companies today.

Their names are Sundar and Satya, okay?

They have brought their energy and talent here.

And by the way, I wrote this a while back, any Haitian who can make a boat out of milk cartons and sail their way to the Florida coast, I want them in my country.

Okay.

But I want a legal framework that will create a pathway for these people to become my neighbor.

Well, I think it's sustainable with the right leadership.

And I think there are many Republicans and Democrats who would offer that leadership.

But I want to take you back to the beginning of your question, Steve.

And it's again about the immigration issue, which is so important to me.

So I was born in Minneapolis in 1953.

My dad's sister and brother-in-law, my uncle was in D-Day, came back from the war.

and decided to set out and try to set up a business in central, west central Minnesota in a town called Wilmer.

The time Wilmer was 99% white, Protestant, Catholic, mostly Scandinavian and German immigrants, and three Jewish families, one of whom was my aunt and uncle.

They were the exotica in town.