Politics & Power Quote by Luis Gutierrez

Gutierrez is doing something politically deft here: he reframes immigrant labor as an act of contribution rather than a threat, swapping the language of invasion for the language of construction. The first move is defensive triage. "Not because they want to take away anything from America" concedes the accusation circulating in anti-immigrant rhetoric - that newcomers are extractive, opportunistic, disloyal - and neutralizes it before it can metastasize. Then he pivots to a three-part drumbeat: "skills, their sweat, their labor". It's a deliberately physical inventory, meant to feel undeniable. You can argue about visas; it's harder to argue with sweat.

The subtext is about dignity and belonging. By emphasizing work, Gutierrez is meeting a quintessential American moral test on its own terrain: earned membership. He implies that the right to be here isn't merely legalistic; it's relational, forged through contribution. That logic can be persuasive in a country where "hardworking" often operates as a moral stamp more than a job description.

Context matters: Gutierrez, a prominent advocate for immigration reform, is speaking into a media environment where immigrants are routinely cast as economic burdens or cultural disruptors. His closing clause - "just as those who came before them" - is the pressure point. It stitches today's migrants into the national origin story, daring listeners to either accept continuity or admit that the mythology of immigrant-built America is conditional, reserved for some groups and not others. It's an appeal to patriotism that quietly indicts selective memory.