Quotes About Legal Immigration

#1. The effects of illegal immigration aren't that different from those of legal immigration - an illiterate Central American farmer with a green card is just as unsuited for a 21st-century economy as an illiterate Central American farmer without a green card.

Mark Krikorian

#2. The thing is, is that every terrorist attack we've had since 9/11 has been legal immigration.

Ted Cruz

#3. 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

#4. Like all other law-abiding Americans, I fully support legal immigration.

Ted Nugent

#5. Ending illegal immigration only strengthens legal immigration.

Mitt Romney

#6. We will have to accept a certain degree of legal immigration; that's globalisation ... In the era of the smartphone, we cannot shut ourselves away ... people know full well how we live in Europe.

Angela Merkel

#7. We are going to make sure that America is open to legal immigration because that is wealth and the talent and the entrepreneurial skills for the 21st Century.

Jack Kemp

#8. I think immigration system that we have is terrible for the United States of America. We have a legal immigration system that does not work. It does not reflect the economic needs of this country in the 21st century. It needs to be modernized.

Marco Rubio

#9. Have you noticed that when it comes to immigration we ride herd on legal immigration pretty damn hard, and who is it that really is subject to most of the limits there? Have to say it's white immigrants.

Rush Limbaugh

#10. We must say no to illegal immigration so we can continue to say yes to legal immigration.

William J. Clinton

#11. Legal immigration is a much tougher group of people to stereotype and to identify as potential new Democrat voters.

Rush Limbaugh

#12. We have a legal immigration system that's outdated, it's primarily based on whether you have family members living here. In the 21st century, it has to be more of a merit-based system, and that is why our legal immigration system is in need of modernization.

Marco Rubio

#13. Conservatives aren't anti-immigrant - conservatives are pro-legal immigration.

Marco Rubio

#14. Even if we didn't have a single person in the USA in violation of immigration laws, we'd still have to do immigration reform, because our legal immigration system is broken. It's not good for anybody.

Marco Rubio

#15. You're never going to have a legal immigration system that works if you grant amnesty.

Marco Rubio

#16. Labor force needs and economic conditions are disregarded in our policies. Many aspects of our current policies and procedures are patently wrong. For example, legal immigration has almost no link to U.S. employment needs or economic conditions.

Ronald Reagan

#17. It's impossible to walk a block in Miami, in Los Angeles, San Antonio without running into someone who is being deeply impacted by a broken legal immigration system.

Marco Rubio

#18. We need to fix our legal immigration system.

Carly Fiorina

#19. Congressional mistakes have dramatically increased immigration through a series of what I believe were ill-advised actions going back to 1965 when the basic notions of our immigration laws were revised. In 1990, Congress opened the floodgates by passing a 35-percent increase in legal immigration.

Ronald Reagan

#20. Legal immigration is a process. You learn everything about the people coming in. You find out how many of 'em are prone to vote Republican. You don't ask 'em this; you just learn.

Rush Limbaugh

#21. I'm a child of immigrants. That is the history of this country. Immigration is good and important for our country. Legal immigration needs to really be modernized.

John Barrasso

#22. These are people - I'm for immigration - legal immigration. I've been an immigration attorney. But people who have come to our country and violated laws, we should not be providing full health care services.

Joe Wilson

#23. Imagine a legal immigration system that welcomes and celebrates those who come to achieve the American dream.

Ted Cruz

#24. 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

#25. I think we need a real plan, which is why I have offered a much more specific approach to securing the border, fixing the legal immigration system and addressing illegal immigration.

Carly Fiorina

#26. There is no quick fix for illegal immigration. But only when we achieve better control of our borders and better respect for our immigration laws can we give meaning to the discussion we need to have over reforming the numbers, categories, and procedures for legal immigration into the United States.

Jan C. Ting

#27. 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

#28. On immigration policy, I believe we ought to call an immediate halt, stop illegal immigration and reduce legal immigration back to about 250,000 to 300,000, to more easily assimilate the Americans who've come here in the last 30 years.

Pat Buchanan

#29. 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

#30. We ought to increase legal immigration for our country's advantage. The high-tech world we are now dominating is dependent on educated folks, but we're short ... of workers. It is to our nation's advantage to encourage high-powered, smart people to come into our country.

George H. W. Bush

#31. There is no more an enthusiastic advocate of legal immigration in the U.S. Senate than I am, and that is a message that resonates powerfully in the Hispanic community.

Ted Cruz

#32. We should be the pro-legal immigration party. A party that has a positive platform and agenda on how we can create a legal immigration system that works for immigrants and works for America.

Marco Rubio

#33. I challenge the Republican nominees and all Republicans to not just be the anti-illegal immigration party. That's not who we are and that's not who we should be we should be the pro-legal immigration party.

Marco Rubio

#34. I think the key to getting rid of illegal immigration, no matter where its coming from, is that you need to have a good legal apparatus for immigration.

Rand Paul

#35. [Illegal immigration] costs the taxpayers of the United States a lot of money. And it's unfair to Americans who are working every day to pay their own bills. It's also unfair to a lot of people who have waited in line for years and years in other countries to be legal immigrants.

William J. Clinton

#36. Moreover, from reforming the tax code to our immigration system, to commonsense legal reform, President Bush put America on notice that he will continue fighting to make the country, and the world, a better place for future generations.

Jim Sensenbrenner

#37. The United States needs to be made more appealing to legal immigrants.

Mitt Romney

#38. Therefore, if we are a Nation of laws and a Nation of immigrants, immigration should occur within a legal framework, not through the machinations of illegal schemes and scams that threaten our national security.

J. D. Hayworth

#39. They view massive immigration as a massive infusion of potential voters for the Democratic Party, and therefore will do nothing, absolutely nothing to stop that flow of legal or illegal entrance into the country.

Tom Tancredo

#40. Our policy is guided by the principle that we will keep unauthorized aliens out of the United States, welcome legal immigrants, and protect refugees from harm. Our solutions rely on working in partnership with States and communities.

William J. Clinton

#41. Getting my legal situation fixed takes a bit longer than we all thought: twelve years to be exact. Not a big deal. Only most of my life.

Patricio Maya

#42. One wonders, in fact, why marriage is a legal issue at all - apart from its relevance to immigration and property laws. Why would something so integral to human nature require such vigilant legal protection?

Christopher Ryan

#43. As legal residents, immigrants would contribute more in taxes, spend more at our businesses, start companies of their own and create more jobs. Immigration is not a problem for us to solve but an opportunity for America to seize.

Jose Andres

#44. In lieu of those checks and balances central to our legal system,
non-citizens face an executive that is now investigator, prosecutor,
judge, jury and jailer or executioner. In an Orwellian twist, Bush's
order calls this Soviet-style abomination 'a full and fair trial.

William Safire

#45. While I support immigration regulated through a legal framework, I do not support rewarding those who broke the law to get here.

Kit Bond

#46. The U.S. immigration system is the most generous in the world, providing each year more green cards for legal permanent residence with a clear path to full citizenship than all the rest of the nations of the world combined.

Jan C. Ting

#47. As Congress continues to debate ways to address illegal immigration, we must remember the many hard-working legal immigrants that contribute so much to our nation's economy and culture.

Bob Filner

#48. We must fix our broken immigration system. That means stopping illegal immigration. And it means welcoming properly vetted legal immigrants, regardless of their race or religion. Just like we have for centuries.

Nikki Haley

#49. We must make immigration a legal, orderly process to eliminate this issue, not further criminalize it.

Jose Serrano

#50. There may be thunder in Europe but it is in America the lightning will fall

Ambrose Bierce

#51. The difference between past and present immigration experience is the existence of a defiant anti-assimilationist lobby that encourages legal and illegal aliens to resist adapting to the American way of life.

Michelle Malkin

#52. 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.

Ted Cruz

#53. There should not be a question of legal or illegal immigration. People came and immigrated to this country from the time of the Indians. No one's illegal. They should just be able to come.

Linda Ronstadt

#54. The Democratic Party looks at massive immigration, legal and illegal, as a source of voters.

Tom Tancredo

#55. The Republican Party looks at massive immigration, legal and illegal, as a source of cheap labor, satisfying a very important constituency.

Tom Tancredo

#56. 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

#57. If we want to set and enforce a limit on immigration, we have to be willing to say no to would-be immigrants who look a lot like our own ancestors, not because there's anything wrong with them, but simply because admitting them would exceed our legal limit.

Jan C. Ting