Barack Obama Quotes

We for sure need to secure the border. I think we need to enforce the legal system. I'm not for amnesty, I'm not an advocate of the plans that have been pushed here in Washington... we need to find a way for people to have a legitimate legal immigration system in this country, and that doesn't mean amnesty.

We want people to come into our country, but they have to come into our country legally and properly vetted and in a manner that serves the national interest! We've been living under outdated immigration rules from decades ago.

I support lowering the level of legal immigration by a moderate amount at this time. Legal immigration reform must be based upon principles that are pro-family, pro-work, and pro-naturalization, retaining opportunities for family reunification as the levels are lowered. We must not let this issue become divisive in this country.

Legal immigration is good for America, if it's controlled and structured via the legal process, of course. But the problem is the system we have in place right now is broken. For example, it is completely family based which means that it's based not on what you can do or what talent you have or what merit you bring or what job you could fill, but rather on whether you know someone who already lives here.

Over a period of time, they [undocumented workers] can have a legalized status that allows them to live a life of dignity but not necessarily a path to citizenship, so as to not create incentives for future people that aspire to come to our country to do so illegally when they could come legally.

I don't mind having a big beautiful door in that wall so that people can come into this country legally. I don't mind having a big beautiful door in that wall so that people can come into this country legally.

The law exists for lots of reasons. In the case of migration, the law exists to maintain the integrity of America. We allow immigrants here, happily so. We don't deny legal immigrants a path to citizenship in this country. But beyond that, since we can't take in everybody, since everybody can't come here, it's physically not possible - well, it is. You know you could put the population of the world inside the state of Texas in 1,500-square-feet homes. I mean, you wouldn't want to, but you could do it.

Giving people like me a green card, a passport, and a driver's license? That's not going to be the end of the immigration conversation and debate in this country. It's like saying we elected Barack Obama president, so all of the racial problems are done. Right? I mean in some ways, the immigration conversation is just starting. Which is why when we started this campaign, we didn't call it Define Immigrant, we called it Define American. That's the question. That's what's at stake.

If you want to have strong borders, so that people come into our country, but they come in legally through a legal process, that doesn't make you a racist. It makes you smart. It makes you an American.

We're going to have strong borders. People are going to come into the country, but they're going to come legally. We're going to keep our jobs and not let them go to Mexico.

I would just say it's not good for the country to have 11 million people here who we don't know who they are, where they're living. They're not paying taxes, but they're showing up in emergency rooms. They're driving up the cost of auto insurance 'cause they don't have driver's licenses and are getting into accidents. They're having children, which are US citizens. So, I mean, it's an issue that needs to be dealt with.

We've even lost the definition of immigration. "Immigration" today, if you listen to the left, equals anybody who wants to come into the country should be allowed. That's not what immigration is. That's illegal immigration, and we ought to all oppose it.

I also talk about building a wall and oftentimes I'll say, and there's going to be a big beautiful door in that wall and people are going to come into our country because we want people to come in. We want people to come into our country, but we want them to come in legally.

Hillary Clinton is totally for open borders - there goes your country - which would mean the destruction of America.

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.

We're going to have people come into our country, but they're going to come in legally, legally.

I think the American people have a generous instinct. They understand that we're a nation of immigrants. But if those folks are going to live in this country, they have to be put on a pathway to citizenship that involves them paying a fine, making sure that they are at the back of the line and not cutting in front of people who applied legally to come into the country.

Because a person chooses to leave their home country and come to the United States does not necessarily mean they have the right to demand that their father or their other extended family members be allowed to come if they don't otherwise meet the standard.

I think the immigration system we have now 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.

Folks, folks, we want to end Obamacare, we want to go to a plan that's so much better and so much less expensive, right? We want to have borders and we want people to come into our country. We welcome people, but they have to come in through a legal process. So, we're going to have a wall, but it's going to have a big, beautiful door and people are going to come into America, but they're going to come in legally.

[Tom Cotton] is known for his efforts to scale back legal immigration. Legal. He wants to stop legal immigrants from coming to this country. That's very popular in Republican politics .

Under my plan the undocumented or as you would say illegal immigrant wouldn’t be in the country. They only come in the country legally.

I call it extreme vetting. And if people don't like it - we've got have a country, folks, got to have a country. Countries in which immigration will be suspended would include places like Syria and Libya.

[Donald] Trump has been saying that on, day one, the violent undocumented immigrants will be - will leave the country. But what about the rest? What happens to the other 11 or so million, however many there are?

Do you realize what's been done to this whole definition of immigrants? The way Democrats and the left talk about immigration, immigration is anybody who wants to come to the country. And so if you're opposed to anybody coming in, then you're anti-immigrant.