Immigration Reform Quotes

We need to pass comprehensive immigration reform, period.

Extending amnesty to those who came here illegally or overstayed their visas is dangerous waters…We are a nation of laws, and I will evaluate any proposal through that matrix.

A special pathway to citizenship is off the table… when I talk to members of the group in the Senate, they’re saying that we’re both saying the same thing.

Let’s start that conversation by acknowledging we aren’t going to deport 12 million illegal immigrants. If you wish to work, if you wish to live and work in America, then we will find a place for you.

America draws tremendous strength from its diversity, which prompts the question, as Congress contemplates comprehensive immigration reform, why are some lawmakers aiming to curb diversity instead of promoting it?

These guidelines contemplate a policy that will grant special benefits to illegal immigrants based on their unlawful presence in the country.

But I can tell you another engine for growth and job creation would be comprehensive immigration reform.

I am confident – very confident – that if I help solve this problem in a way that we won’t have 20 million illegal immigrants 20 years from now, not only will I get re-elected, I can look back and say I was involved in something that was important.

We can’t get serious about immigration reform until we stop people from crossing the border illegally.

For years, President Obama has chastised Republicans, used immigrants as props for political purposes, and time and again deflected responsibility from his own party’s failure to act on immigration reform.

I was part of the gang of eight in the house in 2013 that was working on comprehensive immigration reform. We talked a lot about border security and what was effective and what was not. Walls are not effective when you`re out in the desert and you don`t need them.

I want to be really clear that the Hispanic Caucus – well before my time on that caucus, and certainly before my time as chairwoman – has been very clear that a guiding principle for comprehensive immigration reform, and for issues related to Dreamers, is that a wall is a nonstarter.

I don’t support an amnesty.(Cornyn) demands an ongoing focus on security and workplace enforcement before considering steps to grant legal status, let alone citizenship.

We must have sweeping, generous immigration reform, make existing law- abiding Hispanics welcome. Most are hard working family people.

There’s a lot of overconfidence about this bill. We’re going to expose it. It will not pass.

I intend to have protections for the L.G.B.T. community in there. I’m not going to make choices between that community and the non-L.G.B.T. community.

We need to have comprehensive immigration reform and that means there should be a path for citizenship. And certainly I support the DREAM Act to help all of these young people who were brought here.

I am now more sure than ever that we’re going to have a bipartisan bill … making incredible progress.

We desperately need comprehensive immigration reform in this nation, and yes, comprehensive immigration reform proposals are nuanced and complicated, but you know what shouldn’t be? Our capacity to see each other’s humanity.

If immigration reform was easy, Congress would have dealt with it 15 years ago.

Democrats and Republicans agree on most of a unified, politically viable, and workable immigration reform package. Both parties agree that border security is a key part of any strategy.

We need comprehensive immigration reform. Dr. King wouldn’t be pleased at all to know that there are millions of people living in the shadow, living in fear in places like Georgia and Alabama.

Republicans can’t always agree on where to cut spending. They certainly can’t agree on what to do about entitlements. There isn’t a unified foreign policy vision, and there’s no consensus on immigration reform.

I absolutely advocate for comprehensive immigration reform.

We must pursue immigration reform – it’s something we have to do, something that starts with border security.

There are many miles to go before we get this done … But I have a feeling that … we’re going to have a big bipartisan vote for this in the end. My sense is that people are more optimistic than they’ve been in 20 years about addressing this problem.

We can pass practical, comprehensive immigration reform.

As we continue to work to pass comprehensive immigration reform, we must take action to stop these predators who are exploiting immigrants attempting to play by the rules.

We need comprehensive immigration reform so that we’re not creating this cycle of poverty and depression and everything that comes with separating a family.

The politics, policies, the President [Barack Obama] and the American people are all pointing in the right direction to fix our immigration system and pass legislation this year.

It is my hope that I can stand before you in two years and report back that our side, as well as the president’s, found within us the ability to set differences aside, to provide relief to so many millions of Americans who simply want their life to work again.

Waiting for a long-term solution to immigration reform will not make Americans safer.

After ensuring border security, I then would normalize the status of 11 million undocumented citizens so they can join the work force and pay taxes…I would normalize them at a rate of about two million per year.

He had ‘deep concerns’ with the pathway to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants under consideration by the group, calling it ‘profoundly unfair’ to legal immigrants.

I would argue that you’re only going to get the conservatives, particularly a Republican House, to pass immigration reform if we, as conservatives, are reassured that the border is controlled and that we get to vote on whether the border is controlled.

There’s something in the Latino community called ‘la promesa de Obama’ – Obama’s promise. He made very specific promises to the Latino community. He committed to enacting comprehensive immigration reform within his first year.

I marched with you in the streets of Chicago to meet our immigration challenge. I fought with you in the Senate for comprehensive immigration reform. And I will make it a top priority in my first year as President.

Marco Rubio, I think, will be president some day. Whether 2016 is his time, time will tell. He embraced immigration reform. He seems to have backed off. I’ll let him explain why.

There will never be a bill without a pathway to citizenship signed by the president…And in turn there will never be a pathway to citizenship without a new immigration system replacing the current one.

I want immigration reform to come into fruition, and I want it to be comprehensive, and I want it to have a path to citizenship, and I want to be involved politically every day.

The Dream Act will be a nightmare for the American people. No doubt, we need immigration reform, but the Dream Act is written far too broadly, and it will only encourage more illegal immigration, promote chain migration, and will be a magnet for fraud.

The future of the Republican Party, all the different folks looking to lead the Republican Party at the national level in the future, recognize we should do immigration reform.

Economic conservatives like immigration reform, and in fact, many of them supported the bill that John McCain and I put together in the Senate.

It’s clear that we need comprehensive immigration reform.

Because a person chooses to leave their home country and come to the United States does not necessarily mean they have the right to demand that their father or their other extended family members be allowed to come if they don’t otherwise meet the standard.

We have to do immigration reform while the pro-deportation crew is still reeling.

I’m not sure we will have every single Democrat … but we want a large number of Republicans to be able to vote for this bill because we think that will encourage the House not only to move forward but to pass a bill.

We need to enact comprehensive immigration reform, to bring people out of the shadows and empower them to more fully and freely participate in their communities and the economy. And we need to invest in our nation’s deteriorating infrastructure – investments that would create jobs and benefit all sectors of the economy.

I think comprehensive immigration reform while securing your border and dealing rationale with 11 million is the only way we’re going to solve this problem.

We have a lot of folks who talk about immigration reform but haven’t put their name on a bill.

I’ve always been for immigration reform; in 2007 I just didn’t feel it had enough protections.

I ask unanimous consent that I be able to deliver a floor speech on immigration reform in Spanish.

Beyond budget fights, the Obama second-term agenda was supposed to be about passing comprehensive immigration reform.

We need to decouple the movement for comprehensive immigration reform and justice for immigrants from the legislative process and from the Democratic Party process. They are too linked.

We all want our border to be secure. However, certain individuals use this argument to stop us from ever enacting immigration reform.

Instead of working to undo POTUS exec action, we need to workcollaboratively to achieve comprehensive immigration reform.

The conversation has become so divisive now on all types of immigration reform that it is really hard to move anything.

I started getting more and more active around immigration reform because this was such a waste of lives, such a waste of potential, such a waste for our country not to have the human capital that we developed – geared toward improving our entire society.

Passing comprehensive immigration reform and making DACA and DAPA permanent will free people from living in the shadows of fear from deportation to be able to pursue higher education, buy homes, start businesses, and expand our economy and strengthen the communities of the 10th district and our nation.

So I think there’s going to be a constituent backlash against this thing soon, as they see it moving in that direction…Whether they can pass something before the American public wakes up, I don’t know.

America is the only developed nation that has a 2,000-mile border with a developing nation, and the government’s refusal to control that border is why there are an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona and why the nation, sensibly insisting on first things first, resists ‘comprehensive’ immigration reform.

I happen to believe in immigration reform but I don’t believe that that means that every person who has come into America should be able to stay.

Together, undocumented people like me and our relatives, friends and allies wait for broader immigration reform, not just for Dreamers but also for undocumented workers of all ages and backgrounds who contribute to our economic security and prosperity.

We are dealing with the question of the 11 million people paying their taxes, having a path to legalization and, then, ultimately, to citizenship. Tough issues but we are coming together and I think we can do it.

I think this group of people came together in a way that they haven’t before in 2007. I’m very optimistic we can do something … I want to get there, I want to support this.

You wouldn’t replace your carpet at home if you still had a hole in the roof…We’re talking about any time you start waving a carrot such as American citizenship without securing the borders, that number [of undocumented immigrants] that we have today I believe will double or triple.

Comprehensive immigration reform should be debated and passed by Congress.

We have history as a guide, and history suggests that this brand of comprehensive reform … is a recipe for failure.

Lost in the often-vitriolic national quarrel over immigration reform is any examination of proposed measures that would result in excessive punishment, such as detention and deportation, for the most minor offenses.

The majority of surveys throughout this Nation show that the American people are advocating for a comprehensive and realistic approach to immigration reform.

I will fight every single day to pass comprehensive immigration-reform legislation with a path to citizenship.

This bill [Immigration Reform and Control act of 1986] is a gamble, a riverboat gamble. There is no guarantee that employer sanctions will work or that amnesty will work. We are headed into uncharted waters.

When politicians talk about immigration reform, they usually mean the following, amnesty, open borders, lower wages. Immigration reform should mean something else entirely. It should mean improvements to our laws and policies to make life better for American citizens.

I will continue to stand strongly with my fellow House Democrats, with immigration reform advocates and with millions of hard-working, law-abiding families who want simply to remain together and contribute to our great country.

The only area that I would agree with minimum wage is in immigration reform, the guest worker program.

Conservatives have always wanted border security before we had immigration reform.

Immigration reforms are always controversial. Our Congress was created to muster political will to answer such challenges. Today we didn’t, but tomorrow we will. I yield the floor.

I actually believe that one of the lessons of 1993 and 1994, as well as 2009 and 2010, is that when a Democratic president has the opportunity – with a Democratic Congress – that you shouldn’t wait to push significant legislation, whether it’s health care, immigration reform, other measures.

I will argue until my last breath for a pathway to citizenship that is quick and efficient because I want to end this chapter. I want to end it…But let me say, conversely, I am as committed as any Republican to ending illegal immigration as we know it…They want to end it. So do I.

Senator Obama and I had been on the same side of many fights, and we had worked together on the issue that is most urgent to me – comprehensive immigration reform.

Hillary Clinton and I believe in comprehensive immigration reform. Donald Trump believes in deportation nation. You’ve got to pick your choice.

If we value children and family, there’s a great need for change, and we should try immigration reform – create a path for citizenship for people already here, update the visa system.

I think conventional wisdom is that time is not on our side. But there are a number of members of Congress who have primaries and when those primaries are done, they may be more inclined to address the issue of comprehensive immigration reform.

Comprehensive immigration reform would reduce the deficit and help grow the economy.

While no state has more at stake in immigration policy than California, the entire nation stands to benefit from thoughtful immigration reform.

I do feel immigration will probably be dealt with as long as [the solution] doesn’t provide amnesty … Five years ago, all hell broke loose … This year, I thought phones would ring off the hook again. They really haven’t. I think everybody realizes we have a problem.

While he was in Utah, Obama discussed immigration reform with leaders of the Mormon Church. Obama introduced the first lady. Then the church’s president introduced HIS first lady. And his second lady. And his third, fourth, and fifth ladies.

If immigration reform is bad for America’s workers, then why does virtually every group that represents American workers support it so enthusiastically?

Imagine a libertarian president challenging Congress for meaningful immigration reform.

I was a co-sponsor of Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

When it comes to immigration reform, now is the time … I’ve never seen a better political environment … I’m not doing immigration reform to solve the Republican Party’s political problem. I’m trying to save our nation from, I think, a shortage of labor and a catastrophic broken system.

There are a lot of people who are eager to assign blame. I think we’re [USA] eager to try and find some solutions. One thing that would help would be comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

I think something substantial will pass out of the House at some point during this term.

I see nothing easy in Washington. I see either analytically simple things that are politically complex or those that are politically complex and analytically complex. I mean, look at immigration reform, you know? It is, I think, analytically easy, but politically very, very complex and very difficult.

I believe that real and positive immigration reform is possible, as long as we focus on the following goals: to improve jobs and wages for Americans, to strengthen our nation’s security, and to restore respect for our laws.

Reforms to our complex and dysfunctional immigration system should not in any way favor those who came here illegally over the millions of applicants who seek to come here lawfully. Additionally, the framework carves out a special exception for agricultural workers that has little justification.

As a first generation American myself, I know that comprehensive immigration reform is good for our country. I know it will reduce our deficit, grow our economy, reaffirm our values, advance our ideals, and honor our history as a nation of immigrants.

He [Rubio] is so knowledgeable about this issue … I’m glad to see somebody with his background step forward and say it’s important and we need to look at it.

I… now see a rare opportunity to push across the goal line much of the unfinished business of America: investing in our infrastructure and workers, universal healthcare, comprehensive immigration reform and scrubbing a tax code that’s out of shape and behind the times.

Immigration reform is for those thousands of people in my district and the millions of people across the country who want nothing more than to work hard, provide for their families, and reach for the American Dream.

I was very heartened by Rupert Murdoch’s passionate interest in immigration reform. He is an immigrant himself. He understands from a business perspective how important immigration reform would be to our economy.

When politicians talk about immigration reform, they usually mean the following, amnesty, open borders, lower wages.

I am glad to see the wheels are moving at last toward comprehensive immigration reform after last year’s election. I am glad that immigrants are speaking up.

Our timing is right… The election results are still fresh in the minds of my Republican colleagues and they don’t want to go through this again.

We need a new tax system. We need entitlement reform. We need immigration reform. These are not easy things. But it is going to take our political system working better.

This isn’t all going to be done in one day, either.

Conservatism has always been about reforming government and solving problems, and that’s why the conservative movement should lead on immigration reform.

I support concrete and progressive immigration reform based on three primary criteria: family reunification, economic contributions, and humanitarian concerns.

We know that a ready amnesty tends to be an invitation to more illegal entries.

Mark Zuckerberg has started an advocacy group for immigration reform.

It is my firm belief that it will be in the interests of the United States, especially our economic interests, to pursue comprehensive immigration reform.

If our focus in immigration reform is exclusively on high-skilled or STEM immigrants, where do the rest of the millions yearning to join our ranks fit in?

I want to have a good vote in the Senate so we send the message that the Republicans and the Democrats are together in favor of immigration reform.

I recently spoke with Barbara Jordan of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, and I increasingly believe we need a system to verify employment eligibility. The Commission’s recommendation of a national registry may be the way to go.

I hope that Republicans in the House and Mr. Cantor will embrace that as part of immigration reform.

I still believe the momentum is there to accomplish comprehensive immigration reform, and I think there is a bipartisan coalition that would pass right now, a pathway to citizenship if Speaker Boehner lets it come to the floor.

As the American public continues to focus more intensely on illegal immigration and securing the nation’s borders, the number of members of the House Immigration Reform Caucus continues to grow.

Obama wants to raise the issue of immigration reform so that he can demonize Republicans as anti-Hispanic. That’s why Obama ignores the broad support for an immigration plan that would provide border security once and for all and then deal with the illegal immigrants who live here.

Amnesty will not help balance our budget … In fact, a large-scale amnesty is likely to add trillions of dollars to the debt over time, accelerate Medicare’s and Social Security’s slide into insolvency and put enormous strain on our public-assistance programs.

The problem was, and we saw some of this in the immigration-reform issues as well, was they hadn’t done sufficient homework to know that I didn’t have all the capacity they thought I did in order to just execute this through the stroke of a pen.

The only real solution is comprehensive immigration reform that secures our borders and provides a path to legal status for non-felons who are here without proper legal documentation.

Lost in much of the national debate about immigration reform is how Democrats ultimately stand to gain electorally with any legislation or executive action that would put the newly legalized residents on a path to voting.

I’m also particularly pleased that there is bipartisan support to include the input of border communities. Not only will security be strengthened according to Washington, D.C., but border communities will have a say as well.

Workers who come to the U.S. see their wages and their standard of living boosted sharply simply by crossing the border. That’s a good thing, and one of the best arguments for immigration reform, even if you’ll rarely hear a politician make it.

Told reporters Wednesday he can support a pathway to citizenship for some of the 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. and that he actually prefers it to a plan that would create a second-class of citizens through alternative programs.

Immigration reform almost happened under President George W. Bush. Twice. And it was comprehensive.