Our parents and grandparents understood this truth deeply. They believed - as we do - that to create jobs, a modern economy requires modern investments: educating, innovating and rebuilding for our children's future. Building an economy to last, from the middle class up, not from the billionaires down.

But we should not lose sight of how far we are coming and what a big hole we were left by George W. Bush.

We need to focus on destroying ISIL, but we shouldn't be the ones declaring that [Bashir] Assad must go.

Let's not fall into the trap of thinking that all of our Muslim American neighbors in this country are somehow our enemies here. They are our first line of defense.

Romney economics would spell disaster for America's middle class. In this economy there are shipbuilders and ship wreckers.

Our parents taught us to love God, love our family and love our country. Their own grandparents were immigrants. Their first language may not have been English, but the hopes and dreams they had for their children were purely American.

I believe keeping families together is in the best interest of the United States. And in the past the level of deportations, and the mindlessness with which they've been carried out, that's hurt the United States.