Manuel Puig Quotes

I was an illegal immigrant.

We should not blur the lines between legal and illegal immigrants. Millions of people around the world have gone through the process to come here legally and they followed the rules that required them to pay a fee, learn English, and learn about American history and government.

Mexicans are quasi-legal.

In Tagalog, we call undocumented people 'TNT,' which means tago ng tago, which means 'hiding and hiding.' So that's literally what undocumented means in Tagalog. And that kind of tells you how Filipinos think of this issue, and really any culture, right?

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

Everywhere I travel throughout Eastern Washington, I hear from people demanding we do a better job of controlling our borders and reducing illegal immigration.

Within the Filipino community, everybody knows somebody who's undocumented.

There were many factors as to why I decided to come out as being undocumented. One of them is because I look the way that I look; I don't look like the 'stereotypical undocumented' person.

Of all the questions I get asked as an undocumented immigrant in the United States, there are two - asked in various permutations via email, social media or in person - that chill me to the bone: 'Why don't you just make yourself legal?' And: 'Why don't you get in the back of the line?'

E-Verify is a very commonsense reform that we can implement here in the state of Florida. I think I share a lot of Floridians' frustration that it didn't pass and a lot of the politics that were taking place behind the scenes.

It would be a travesty, in my opinion, to treat those who violated our laws to get here much better than those who have patiently waited their turn to come to the United States the right way.

I found out that I was illegal when I was 16. I'm gay. I'm Filipino.

Quite frankly, I think if a man or a woman likes their American job, wherever they were born, they should be able to keep that job. We need a clear path to citizenship for workers who are already here and a fair and efficient on-ramp for those who want to come here.

You know, I'm one of millions of undocumented people in this country who are living kind of under the shadows. And in many ways, coming out, it was my way of - at the end of the day, I think we have to tell the truth about this immigration system. And because of that, I had to tell the truth about myself.

These are people who haven't gone through the legal means to becoming citizens like our forefathers did. They want all the benefits but none of the responsibilities.

What person here illegally (and in his right mind), will go to the government, announce being here illegally (e.g. plead guilty), provide all sorts of information as to where that person lives etc. to get a work permit only to be a target for deportation in two years?

The threshold of the Dream Act is not high enough. One year of community college is not enough... No, I do not support the Dream Act.

For decades, I have cringed whenever someone called me 'illegal,' as if I'm an insect on someone's back. I found out I didn't have the right papers - that I was here illegally - when I tried to get a driver's permit at age 16. But I am not 'illegal.' No person is.

We don't want two-tier people in America. Those who are legal but not citizens, and citizens.

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

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

For the undocumented immigrants, the big priority is just to get out from the shadows, be able to get a driver's license, buy an airplane ticket and stop worrying about sudden deportation. But for the country as a whole, it's crucial that everybody have a citizen's stake in the nation's welfare.

Thirty-five to forty percent of the people who are not lawfully present in the United States entered the country legally – through student visas, visitor visas, business visas, visa waivers. All of these people entered the country legally, so securing the borders really doesn’t affect that aspect of illegal immigration.

You who are so-called “illegal aliens” must know that no human being is illegal.

The federal government is responsible for addressing how to address the status of the estimated 9 to 15 million people who are in the country illegally, but local and state law enforcement can be helpful partners in that regard.