Patrick Leahy Quotes

Germany has got to deal with its global responsibilities in a mature way. There has been insufficient thought to immigration law, and we need to differentiate between different kinds of migrants. There are valid refugees whose lives are at risk at home.

I hope the Icelandic government grants me political asylum.

I've become very fond of the law. I've always been an advocate for justice, which occasionally the law brings to light.

And so I would not enforce a law that would reject people and turn them away without giving them a fair and due process to determine if we should give them asylum and refuge.

The best advice I have is, actually present yourself at a legal border crossing and make your case. Cross illegally and get arrested, and your children will be given to us. That's the simple fact, I'm afraid.

A bedrock principle of our justice system is ensuring a fair day in court, something that is especially important for children who cannot advocate for themselves.

Stateless people are hidden. During the 2011 refugee crises, it was obvious that people were fleeing Somalia and Libya - there was a lot of international attention. Statelessness goes undetected because stateless people are in legal limbo and are afraid to show up.

Asylum under the traditional definition doesn't necessarily include people coming here for economic reasons, but I think one of the biggest things we need to do is expand legal immigration so people can do that legally.

The children and families seeking asylum at our border deserve our immediate attention and humanitarian aid.

Instead of turning loose these bogus asylum applicants onto the American streets never to be seen again, let's put them into mobile homes. Let's process their claims. Let's ship the judges in. Have the claims processed right there. As soon as their claim is denied, put them on a passenger plane and fly them right back home.

A lawyer's either a social engineer or he's a parasite on society.

The current system for admission of refugees with family ties in the U.S. is fraught with inconsistencies and discriminatory practices.

I didn't plan that there'd be this awful situation in which our European governments, just to start the story off, breaking the Geneva conventions on the protection on the human rights of refugees.

The scandal isn't that refugees want to come to the United States. It's that Trump is abusing these aspiring Americans and closing our doors to them.

Legal aid gets a bad press. Some rail against handing taxpayers' money to criminals; others attack fat cat lawyers, while some argue that we spend far more on legal aid than other countries. But let's get some facts straight: saying that legal aid is just about criminals is wrong - most goes to people before any decision is taken on their guilt.

It shouldn't be the asylum seekers wondering which country they want go to. It should be Europe telling them where to be, be it Lithuania, Sweden, or wherever.

I believe that if we don't offer legal ways of emigrating to Europe and immigrating within Europe, we will be lost. If those who come - who are, generally speaking, the poor and needy - are no longer able to enter the house of Europe through the front door, they'll keep making their way in through the back windows.

We need to work with the other countries in the hemisphere so that they also have refugee policies in place so that people have a place to go and can escape the violence in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.

If I wasn't a musician, I'd take up the law. They are the rottenest, wealthiest people in America.

Refugee policy is only one part of immigration law needing a drastic overhaul.

As a child, I wanted to be a lawyer because I thought lawyers and the law were wonderful. But they are more wonderful, I think, than I had thought.

Journalists casually use terms like crossing the border illegally when referring to asylum seekers - when in fact there is no law that says they must use the ports of entry.

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.

Donald Trump is a champion for legal immigrants.

The greatest nation in the world should not have much to fear from a family, especially children, fleeing violence. More importantly, children fleeing violence ought to have nothing to fear from the greatest country in the world.