Former President George W. Bush will soon release a new book that will include 43 portraits of immigrants.
The book, Out of Many, One, will focus on the country’s history of welcoming immigrants and the contributions that immigrants have brought to life in the United States. It will be released on March 2, 2021, coinciding with the opening of an exhibition at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Texas that focuses on the “proud history” of U.S. immigration. The exhibit will also feature the paintings by the 43rd president.
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In a statement on the presidential center’s website, Bush said that immigration is a sign of a “confident and successful” nation.
“Our generation must ensure that America remains a beacon of liberty and the most hopeful society the world has ever known,” Bush said. “We must always be proud to welcome people as fellow Americans. Our new immigrants are just what they’ve always been — people willing to risk everything for the dream of freedom.”
Bush has been critical of the Trump administration’s hard-line approach to immigration, saying he was “disturbed” by the rhetoric that he was hearing about the issue.
“I think it doesn’t recognize the valuable contributions that immigrants make to our society. And it obscures the fact — the rhetoric does — that the system is broken and needs to be fixed,” he said in 2018.
The former president took up portrait painting as a hobby shortly after leaving office in 2009. He has painted portraits of world leaders, lawmakers, and veterans. He released a book with oil paintings and stories of military veterans in 2017 called Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief’s Tribute to America’s Warriors.
