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Statement on Signing Legislation Designating the Joseph Ileto Post Office

April 14, 2000

Today I signed legislation designating the United States Post Office located at 14701 Peyton Drive in Chino Hills, California, as the "Joseph Ileto Post Office." Joseph Ileto was a Filipino-American postal worker who was tragically murdered last year in a crime of hate. He was a dedicated public servant, killed simply because he was an Asian-American who worked for his country's Government. It is a fitting tribute to the life and memory of Mr. Ileto that we name this Post Office in his honor.

During the last year, we have all been shaken by violent acts like the murder of Joseph Ileto, acts that strike at the very values that define us as a nation. Now is the time for us to take strong and decisive action to fight hate crimes, and I call on Congress, at long last, to pass strong hate crimes legislation. It is time for us all to raise our voices against intolerance and to build the one America that our hearts tell us we can be.

NOTE: H.R. 3189, approved April 14, was assigned Public Law No. 106-184.

William J. Clinton, Statement on Signing Legislation Designating the Joseph Ileto Post Office Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/228375

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