Russell Pearce Quotes

Mexicans are quasi-legal.

I don't want to take away deferred status from anyone who has it, but I also didn't want to send the message that it is OK to come here illegally.

Illegal aliens have broken our laws, and they shouldn't be rewarded with amnesty and immediate legalization.

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.

The other thing I like, in fact, several months ago I introduced a bill to end the absurd catch and release policy where our government has been giving tickets, essentially, to people who enter illegally and then letting them go and show up of their own volition.

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?

I would have liked to see where we would have the authority to arrest illegal aliens just by being here illegally and book them into our jails, but that's not going to happen.

The simple answer to the illegal alien problem is to secure our boarders and enforce the law.

Deportation is crucial. Credibility in immigration policy can be summed up in one sentence: Those who should get in, get in; those who should be kept out, are kept out; and those who should not be here will be required to leave. The top priorities for detention and removal, of course, are criminal aliens. But for the system to be credible, people actually have to be deported at the end of the process

Americans are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal immigrants entering this country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by our citizens or legal immigrants, and the public services they use impose burdens on our taxpayers. That's why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders by hiring a record number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before, by cracking down on illegal aliens who try to take American jobs, and by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens.

The policy is anyone who's here illegally is here illegally, does not have the right to be here. We'll decide whether it's in our interest to let them stay or not. Perhaps it is in our interest to let some of them stay.

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.

We must make clear that if you come here illegally, you will be sent back home.

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

I just always believe that we should not reward people with citizenship whose first act in this country was a violation of the law. And I continue to hold that view. But let me say, I think there is plenty of room here for compassion. And there's plenty of room here for crafting a solution that will deal with this issue in the long term.

The only way that we can disincentivize Central American immigrants from illegally entering our country is if we change our policies, tweak our laws, cut the bureaucratic red tape and immediately send them back to their countries of origin. Until then, this self-imposed crisis will continue to worsen.

No nation can have the policy that whole classes of people are immune from immigration law or enforcement. It was a simple decision by the administration to have a zero tolerance policy for illegal entry, period. The message is that no one is exempt from immigration law.

Donald Trump is right - we must secure the border and end sanctuary cities.

The hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens who have unlawfully crossed our border are posing a significant threat to the government's ability to effectively enforce our nation's immigration laws.

No one disagrees that undocumented criminals should be deported.

I've used the word 'compliant' environment, and what that means is it's absolutely right that we have an environment in terms of our immigration policy that distinguishes between people that are here legally and those that are here illegally.

We need to increase deportations.

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.

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.

It simply doesn't make any sense for us to have illegal aliens in our custody in our courts and then let them go back to living here illegally. That's wrong and we should stop it.