Quotes About Amnesty

#1. 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.

Jim Sensenbrenner

#2. We feel a pathway to citizenship would reward illegal activity, ... Amnesty encourages further illegal immigration.

Elaine Chao

#3. We women are constantly at war with our bodies, it is hard to find amnesty for ourselves.

Margaret Cho

#4. 3 "amnesty" didn't mean rewarding illegal behavior.

John McCain

#5. After granting amnesty to illegals 20 years ago, we have gone from 3 million illegals to 11 million illegals. Our government has been fooled once by this amnesty argument, let us not be fooled again.

Ric Keller

#6. You know, when President Reagan, who was one of my idols, granted amnesty to about three million illegal immigrants it was based on the fact that the borders would be secured. That didn't happen. It didn't happen during the Bush administration.

Jan Brewer

#7. Since the '86 amnesty, the number of illegal immigrants has quadrupled. That should teach Congress a very important lesson: Amnesty 'bends' the rule of law. And bending the rule of law to reach a 'comprehensive' deal winds up provoking wholesale breaking of the law.

Edwin Meese

#8. I would vote against anything that grants amnesty because I think it destroys your ability to enforce the existing law

Marco Rubio

#9. Amnesty is a terrible policy, and it's terrible politics. It's a terrible policy because you are rewarding people for breaking the law.

Tom Tancredo

#10. There should be a path to earned legal status for those that are here. Not - not amnesty - earned legal status, which means you pay a fine and do many things over an extended period of time.

Jeb Bush

#11. I was no assassin. I got out during the amnesty because I had not committed any violent crimes.

Jose Mujica

#12. Embracing amnesty and open borders. Sure, other countries have borders (the ones most people are fleeing from), but discussing the possibility of an American border is smeared as racist - the

Greg Gutfeld

#13. In income tax, there is no case for amnesty.

P. Chidambaram

#14. The American people likewise want to see enforcement first, no tricks, no triggers, no amnesty, enforcing existing laws and closing loopholes to reaffirm that our great Republic is, in fact, a nation of laws.

J. D. Hayworth

#15. I supported this bill. I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and who have lived here even though sometime back they may have entered illegally.

Ronald Reagan

#16. 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.

John Cornyn

#17. Unprecedented amnesty in history of Georgia took place

Vano Merabishvili

#18. Republicans rejected calls for amnesty and we've fought efforts to provide illegal aliens with taxpayer funded benefits. The American people are far closer to our Republican approach to border security than they are to Nancy Pelosi's approach.

Marsha Blackburn

#19. Amnesty, that noble word, the genuine dictate of wisdom.

Aeschines

#20. I think we should be pushing for amnesty and a path to citizenship for every undocumented person residing in the United States who has not committed a violent crime, with a special emphasis on keeping families together.

Conor Oberst

#21. 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.

Jeff Sessions

#22. There is international criminal organizations penetrating our southern based borders, and we need to do something about it. Secure the border, enforce the law, no amnesty, and go forward with the legal immigration system that gives priority to American working families and wages.

Scott Walker

#23. It's the publicity function of Amnesty that I think has made its name so widely known, not only to readers in the world, but to governments - and that's what matters.

Peter Benenson

#24. Amnesty is the forgiveness of something. Amnesty is anything that says, 'Do it illegally, it will be cheaper and easier.'

Marco Rubio

#25. Driver's licenses & scholarships for illegals; not amnesty.

Bill Richardson

#26. Amnesty is as good for those who give it as for those who receive it. It has the admirable quality of bestowing mercy on both sides.

Victor Hugo

#27. Amnesty International, which was opening its yearlong campaign to protect human rights defenders in Colombia in response to the country's horrifying record of attacks against human rights and labor activists and mostly the usual victims of state terror: the poor and defenseless.

Noam Chomsky

#28. Our immigration system is not broken. We don't need, and Congress shouldn't enact, amnesty.

Jan C. Ting

#29. Even the classics that we read to our young children are full of wolves' fangs and burning ovens and bloody feet and ice shards piercing hearts. Even the New Testament climaxes with an act of unspeakable torture. Might as well just read to our kids from the Amnesty Annual Report and be done with it.

Geraldine Brooks

#30. That the Iraqi Government is considering a political deal granting amnesty to insurgents who have attacked or killed American service members is not just shocking - the idea of amnesty for insurgents is an outrage.

Ike Skelton

#31. Transparency, accountability and sustainability have become the slogans of the market leaders. Companies carry out environmental and social audits to court the consumer, and even the bluest chips woo organisations such as Greenpeace and Amnesty.

Noreena Hertz

#32. This is President Obama's number one political agenda item because he knows we will never again have a Republican president, ever, if amnesty goes into effect.

Michele Bachmann

#33. To say that Reagan teaches us that we should be against amnesty for illegal immigrants is to contradict what Reagan himself stood for - that he was in favor of amnesty.

Eugene Jarecki

#34. When I ran in Texas, I told the people of Texas, 'if you elect me, I will lead the fight against amnesty.'

Ted Cruz

#35. When you take comprehensive, then we're dealing with certain issues like full citizenship ... And whatever else we disagree on, I think we would agree on that that's a more toxic and contentious issue, granting full amnesty.

Herbert Spencer

#36. We will not grant amnesty to illegal aliens in this Congress or, hopefully ever again. We did that once. Everybody said it was a one time deal. We were to never do it again. The problem with doing it was we reward people who violated the law. We reward people who came into the country illegally.

Phil Gramm

#37. Amnesty International Survey found that 25 percent of people believe a woman is to blame for being raped if she dresses provocatively.

Caitlin Moran

#38. Washington wants ObamaCare, the people want freedom. Washington wants amnesty, the people want rule of law. Washington wants power over the internet, the people want freedom online.

Ted Cruz

#39. No one believed [the 1986 amnesty for illegal aliens] was tough enough on illegal immigration, and it didn't give enough flexibility on future legal immigration.

Charles Schumer

#40. Austrian Republic established after the war gave an amnesty to 90 per cent of members of the Nazi Party in 1948, and to the SS and Gestapo by 1957.

Edmund De Waal

#41. Money has a certain kind of amnesty.

Andy Warhol

#42. Every time anybody in Washington talks about legal status, amnesty, anything of that nature, it becomes a magnet that lures people in quickly into the United States.

Louie Gohmert

#43. To properly do penance one must express contrition for one's sins and perform acts to repair the damage caused by those transgressions. It is only when those acts are complete that the slate can truly be wiped clean and amnesty gives way to a new beginning.

Emily Thorne

#44. Granting amnesty to people who broke the law penalizes the millions of people who are waiting to come to America legally.

Phil Gramm

#45. Senator Marco 'amnesty' Rubio, while proponents of immigration reform say the Florida Republican was quick to retreat when the going got tough.

Donald Trump

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

Jeff Sessions

#47. I'm not for amnesty. I've never been for amnesty, will never be for amnesty.

Bobby Jindal

#48. Bonnie and her mum are both members of Amnesty International," said Abigail.
"Of course they are," murmured Madeline. This must be how Jennifer Aniston feels, thought Madeline, whenever she hears about Angelina and Brad adopting another orphan or two.

Liane Moriarty

#49. Amnesty is the magnet. Other magnets that you mentioned are anchor babies who get benefits in this country and employer deductions for employees, even if they are here illegally, which Mr. King is addressing.

Virgil Goode

#50. The second one, the joint Truth and Friendship Commission, which we started now with Indonesia, that is the one that has been criticized; its terms of reference call for providing amnesty for those who cooperate in telling the truth. It does not lead to prosecution.

Jose Ramos-Horta

#51. I support legal immigration. I don't support amnesty because it is not fair to people standing in line at consulates around the world.

Heather Wilson

#52. I do think we should be focused on substance and record. If you want a candidate who opposes amnesty, who opposes citizenship for the 12 million people here illegally, I'm the only candidate in the race who opposes that.

Ted Cruz

#53. I said it's impossible to have an amnesty without ID cards and a clean database, because you firstly don't have any incentives for people to actually come up front and register, and make themselves available, and secondly you have no means of tracking them.

David Blunkett

#54. Though the gospel amnesty which grace proclaims makes no exceptions, for Divine grace has no limits, there are limits to the time within which the amnesty avails. And if sinners despise grace there is nothing for them but judgment, stern and inexorable.

Robert Anderson

#55. I introduced legislation in the Senate to prohibit President Obama's amnesty. The House of Representatives stood up and led. It took the legislation I introduced and it passed it. But the Senate Democrats stood as one uniform block and said, 'No, we will do nothing to stop amnesty.'

Ted Cruz

#56. 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.

Charles Schumer

#57. Amnesty is a big billboard, a flashing billboard, to the rest of the world that we don't really mean our immigration law.

Richard Lamm

#58. Unbelievably, while many non-governmental organizations like Amnesty International and America's Watch have denounced the human rights situation in Cuba, there has been a continuing love affair on the part of the media and many intellectuals with Fidel Castro.

Armando Valladares

#59. If you support amnesty, you should vote for the Democrats.

Ted Cruz

#60. Those who have come to the United States illegally should not be given amnesty or an easier path to citizenship over those already in line.

Mitt Romney

#61. There was reference made to our leaders being stupid. It's not a question of stupidity. It's that they don't want to enforce the immigration laws. That there are far too many in the Washington cartel that support amnesty.

Ted Cruz

#62. Uriel's giving some of the humans amnesty?" "Just the ones who gave her up." Josiah nods toward me. The muscles in Raffe's jaw dance as he clenches his teeth.

Susan Ee

#63. Writing is powerful. Whether it's a little girl hiding from the Nazis in an attic, or Amnesty International writing letters on behalf of political prisoners, the power of telling stories is usually what causes change.

Erin Gruwell

#64. We try it practically every time it comes up, be it amnesty, be it any other issue they want. We try and it gets us nowhere, and it doesn't get us any favors among left-wing-inclined voters, either.

Rush Limbaugh

#65. I never understood whether the word 'amnesty' is correct or not. Maybe I am not very intelligent but I checked the dictionary to find the meaning.

Kapil Dev

#66. These illegal aliens are criminals and we need to treat them as such. I'm not in favor of giving amnesty to anybody who has broken the law. I applaud what our Georgia legislature is doing in trying to crack down on this situation.

Paul Broun

#67. There are works of fiction which seek to explain jihadi terrorists as the militant wing of Amnesty International. I don't buy that.

Chris Morris

#68. [Barak] Obama's immigration behavior, executive amnesty, this DREAMer stuff - everything he's doing - is outside the law.

Rush Limbaugh

#69. I think Obama has redefined the Democratic Party. It used to be the party of acid, amnesty, and abortion, and now it's surrender, socialism, and subprime mortgages.

Ann Coulter

#70. Our country will not stand for any political plan that includes amnesty for insurgents.

Ike Skelton

#71. All I can tell you is what I see at home- a lot of lessons learned from '86. That, 'OK, we'll go one-time amnesty and after that we'll really be good.' But nobody believes it this time, nobody believes it.

Michael C. Burgess

#72. I have never supported amnesty, and I led the fight against Chuck Schumer's gang of eight amnesty legislation in the Senate.

Ted Cruz

#73. It is time for Republicans in D.C. to fight. Too often, they give up; they negotiate with themselves. They said they would get rid of the unconstitutional amnesty. They didn't do that. They said they would repeal Obamacare if we gave them the majority. They didn't do that, either.

Bobby Jindal

#74. If there's amnesty leading to citizenship, I'm going to vote against it again.

Frank Wolf

#75. How arrogant - how very far from humility - would be the self-satisfied, smug assurance that God, a tidy-up-after-us God will come and clean up our mess? Hope for a nanny God, who will with a miracle grant us amnesty from our folly - that's not aligned with either history or the text of the Bible.

Sheldon Whitehouse

#76. It is vital that Iraq and the United States together send the clearest possible signal that those who commit acts of violence against American military forces and American civilians will not be rewarded with amnesty.

Ike Skelton

#77. After 2012, all of the Washington political consultants and all the mainstream media came to Republicans and said, 'You've got to do better with Hispanics, and the way to do better with Hispanics is to embrace amnesty.' And, look, a lot of Republicans in Washington were scared.

Ted Cruz

#78. You cannot grant amnesty. If the American people see us granting amnesty they will never again believe in legal immigration. They will never again support it, and that's wrong for our country, bad for our future.

Marco Rubio

#79. Senator Marco 'amnesty' Rubio, who has worst voting record in Senate, just hit me on national security - but I said don't go into Iraq.

Donald Trump

#80. If you say the word amnesty - the 'A-word,' so to speak - it's DOA. If there's even a hint of amnesty in my district, it's dead on arrival.

Randy Weber

#81. Immigration reform is a must, an amnesty. So that's my position. I've been pushing that one since before it was popular.

Dick Mountjoy

#82. Amnesty International adopted me as a prisoner of conscience, and that led to my - it touched me in a way that really led to me opening up my heart, I've called it the re-humanisation process.

Maajid Nawaz

#83. As I rejected amnesty, so I reject revenge. I ask all Americans who ever asked for goodness and mercy in their lives, who ever sought forgiveness for their trespasses, to join in rehabilitating all the casualties of the tragic conflict of the past.

Gerald R. Ford

#84. A vote for Eric Cantor is a vote for open borders. A vote for Eric Cantor is a vote for amnesty.

Dave Brat

#85. Anybody that brings up amnesty in this Congress, we need to just take the scarlet 'A' for amnesty and pin it on them.

Steve King

#86. Drive out the demon called fear, and if it returns from exile grant it
no amnesty, sentence it to death.

Matshona Dhliwayo

#87. I have published a proclamation: 'Forgive us our transgressions as we forgive those who transgress against us.' I have ordered all citizens to return to their parishes to enjoy the benefits of this general amnesty.

Toussaint Louverture

#88. And the bottom line is, is that they are illegal aliens entering our country. And we simply cannot sustain that kind of activity. Bottom line is it's a backdoor to amnesty and I don't believe the American people support that.

Jan Brewer

#89. If you want a president to stop amnesty, to secure the borders and keep us safe, then support a candidate who has led the fight to stop amnesty to secure the borders and to keep us safe.

Ted Cruz

#90. Those who today still feel a sense of impotence can do something: they can support Amnesty International. They can help it to stand up for freedom and justice.

Peter Benenson

#91. The recent, single-year influx of unaccompanied minors from foreign countries into the United States is a direct result of President Obama's policies of encouraging amnesty and failing to enforce existing immigration laws.

James Lankford

#92. Amnesty is not the answer as it will only encourage more illegal immigrants to enter.

Timothy Murphy

#93. I oppose amnesty, I oppose citizenship, I oppose legalization for illegal aliens. I always have and I always will.

Ted Cruz

#94. 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.

Johnny Isakson

#95. One simple rule: no amnesty, no special pathway to citizenship.

Mitt Romney

#96. I do not support amnesty. I do not support driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants.

Brian Sandoval

#97. We already have immigration law, and it is being violated. Obama's executive amnesty is not the settled law. [Barak ] Obama's executive amnesty is outside the law, and that's why it's been stayed.

Rush Limbaugh

#98. It is a lie that to talk to Hispanics you have to talk about amnesty. Let me tell you, the only Hispanics that are in favor of amnesty are the illegals.

Rafael Cruz

#99. Amnesty, n. The state's magnanimity to those offenders whom it would be too expensive to punish.

Ambrose Bierce

#100. When Obama boasts that it will be a huge boon to the economy to give amnesty to millions of low-wage workers, who won't pay income taxes but will need a lot of government services, remember: Obamacare was supposed to save money, too.

Ann Coulter