Ronald Reagan Quotes

The No. 1 question I get is, "Do you believe in an open-borders policy?" I'm like, wait a second: What does that really mean? When you say open-borders policy, do you mean that - this is like the US-Mexico border? We put up a sign that says "Keep Out," then 10 yards in we say, "Job Wanted." Is that what people mean by open borders? So that usually shuts people up. But that's the truth.

I think we need a vibrant guest worker program. If we have one, we're going to stop having a lot of issues at the border.

You are never going to have, in a country as rich as ours [the USA], that borders a country as poor as Mexico, an end to immigration. You just won't. The question is, if you make it humane and if you make it regulated. It's much better for an American worker to compete against a regulated immigrant inside labor standards, than it is to ever to compete against an illegal immigrant.

With all due respect to Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, neither of them understand Texas, nor do they understand the U.S.-Mexico border.

For those of us living in Texas and other border states, the reality of an open and unsecured border is a part of everyday life.

Democrats like Congressman Elijah Cummings say they care about how migrants are treated at the border. What about the families and people in their own district?

That has always been the underpinning of his [Donald Trump's] policy along with the building of the wall on the United States-Mexican border. And those things have remained completely consistent.

Our message to the world will be this. You cannot obtain legal status or become a citizen of the United States by illegally entering our country. That's right. People will know that you can't just smuggle in, hunker down, and wait to be legalized. It's not going to work that way. Those days are over.

A country that cannot count its own illegal aliens - estimates range from 8-12 million - with a porous 2,000 mile border is not secure despite twelve carrier battle groups. We must accept that it is a cornerstone of Mexican foreign policy to export illegally each year a million of its own to the United States to avoid needed reform at home and to influence American domestic policy.

Ted [Cruz], you support legalizing people who are in this country illegally.

Look, for example, at the obvious, immediate, practical example of illegal Mexican immigration. Now, that Mexican immigration, over the border, is a good thing. It's a good thing for the illegal immigrants. It's a good thing for the United States. It's a good thing for the citizens of the country. But, it's only good so long as its illegal....

I feel a very, very strong bind, and really I'm bound to this country, we either have a border or we don't. People can come into the country, we welcome people to come but they have to come in legally.

I think what he [Donald Trump] has said is that people are not going to be eligible for legalization or citizenship unless they leave the country and get back in line.

[Donald Trump] has said that very consistently [about border], the contrast with Hillary Clinton, who supports amnesty, open borders, who wants to implement executive amnesty again on day one, even though the Supreme Court of the United States rejected it, and Hillary Clinton, who wants to increase refugees from the terrorist-torn country of Syria by 550 percent.

If people around the world believe they can just come on a temporary visa and never, ever leave - the Obama-Clinton policy, that's what it is - then we have a completely open border, and we no longer have a country! We must send a message that visa expiration dates will be strongly enforced.

We will have a mechanism for dealing with people in this country that - you heard the word humanely again. It is going to be fair. It is going to be tough. But there will be no path to legalization, no path to citizenship unless people leave the country.

I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.

No. 1, it [amnesty for illegal aliens] demoralizes the people that are going through the legal process. It's a very clear signal that why go through the legal process if you can accomplish the same thing through the illegal process? And No. 2, it demoralizes the people enforcing the law. So I am not and I will never support - never have and never will support - any effort to grant blanket legalization amnesty to folks who have entered or stayed in this country illegally.

You couldn't have a more clear choice between Donald Trump and I, who will end illegal immigration in this country, and - and Hillary Clinton, who will pursue more of the same, executive amnesty, open borders, which the American people are sick and tired of.

This is a guy [Donald Trump] who has been very consistent on no amnesty, no legalization, for folks who have been coming to the country illegally.

If people around the world believe they can just come on a temporary visa and never, ever leave, the Obama-Clinton policy, that's what it is, then we have a completely open border, and we no longer have a country.

This has been a huge problem for a very long period of time that we have, that Mexico's economy and Mexico's socialist orientation makes it so that people want to come to the United States in such numbers. I wish that we could figure out a way to do this in a legal fashion because I believe in the Latino culture.

I'd like something that faces reality. We have 12 million people in this country that are undocumented - that's a reality. It's not going to be like they're all going to leave. One of the reasons I'm holding this hearing in the morning is to hear from somebody who actually understands what's involved here - Janet Napolitano - and I hope that from what she says and what we hear from her, we can start building some consensus.

Look, folks, everybody knows we're not gonna kick these DREAMers out of the country. I know that a lot of people think that we should have no mercy here on... "Mercy" is the wrong word. That, if we're gonna have border security, we're gonna have border security. If you're illegal and you're here illegally, you gotta go back and try to get in legally. I understand that.

There isn’t any sensible approach except to do what we need to do simultaneously—secure our borders with technology, personnel, physical barriers if necessary in some places. And we need to have tougher employer sanctions and we need to try to incentivize Mexico to do more and we need to create the environment in which we get people out of the shadows and then give them some earned right to legalization that will enable them to continue to work. If they’ve committed transgressions of whatever kind, they should be obviously deported. But that won’t stop it unless Mexico and their neighbors to the south actually let these hard-working people have a future in their own countries.