President addresses college graduates

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
MIAMI -- President Bush seized on hundreds of examples of the American success story at Miami Dade College's Kendall campus graduation Saturday to make a push for his stalled immigration platform.
"Here at Miami Dade, you know firsthand the contributions that immigrants make to our country," Bush told 1,500 graduates, 77 percent Hispanic, and their families at MDC's Kendall campus gymnasium. "This experience gives you a special responsibility to make your voices heard."
Bush renewed a call for laws proposed last year that would offer a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants. Earlier in the day, Bush devoted his weekly radio address to the same issue, which remains stalled in Congress. Opponents say it is a form of amnesty that rewards people who broke the law.
Before Bush spoke, MDC graduates cheered loudly as Miami Senior High School and Miami Sunset High School Jr. ROTC students unfurled flags from 64 countries represented in the graduating class.
It provided a vivid illustration of a striving population of students from around the world, eager to advance through education.
In introducing Bush, Kendall campus student government president Christopher Miles said his fellow graduates are "people whose mothers and fathers never dreamed of going to college ... the fruits of democracy, the offspring of the people's college."
Bush's 20-minute speech made only brief reference to the unpopular war in Iraq. He drew enthusiastic applause and several ovations, especially when he referred to his brother Jeb, the former Florida governor who also attended the graduation, as "mi hermano."
Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have drawn more controversy as graduation speakers at other campuses this year, where students have held forums and protests. Protesters in Kendall were kept on the campus' perimeter. A few professors inside the gym wore green and white ribbons to urge a withdrawal from Iraq.