Edwin Meese Quotes

We watched the U.S. citizenship immigration services web site in March. They had six million, two hundred thousand hits, and two million people downloaded applications for citizenship. So what we're doing is attempting to help people in that process.

And we'll build a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants who are already contributing to our economy!

If I ran for president, the first thing I'd do is legalize everyone who's been here paying taxes, working, paying taxes. Mothers and fathers of kids born in the U.S. should get a green card.

In the U.S., those requesting a Green Card must take an oath that they will fulfill the rights and duties of citizenship.

Cubans have no bar to being legalized once they are in America. All other Hispanics - with the exception of Puerto Ricans - have to go through a broken, dysfunctional process. One group is American from day one. And all the rest are trying to be.

After this interview, I'm going to immigration to try to sort out my Green Card, just like any other normal person.

The White House looked into a plan that would allow illegal immigrants to stay in the United States. The plan called for a million Mexicans to marry a million of our ugliest citizens.

The DREAM Act was intended to benefit illegal immigrants who were brought here as children, the most sympathetic subset among our large illegal immigrant population.

On immigration reform you don’t get a bill without a path to citizenship .

For those who have come here illegally, they might have a transition time to allow them to set their affairs in order. And then go back home and get in line with everybody else. And if they get in line and they apply to become a citizen and get a green card, they will be treated like everybody else.

Immigrants are integral to the strength of our nation. They deserve comprehensive reform that will provide a pathway to citizenship and ensure that families aren't torn apart.

I fully recognize we need to improve the path to citizenship, just as we need to value the hard work of folks who become American citizens legally.

We need to have comprehensive immigration reform and that means there should be a path for citizenship. And certainly I support the DREAM Act to help all of these young people who were brought here.

We all need to call upon our lawmakers to create a path to citizenship for hard-working, law-abiding undocumented people and their families.

It took me 17 years to become a U.S. citizen.

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.

It wouldn't matter whether you were Latino or Hispanic or Norwegian. If you didn't have proof of citizenship and if the police officer had reasonable suspicion, he would ask and verify your citizenship. I mean, that's the way that it is. That's what the federal law says. And that's what the law in Arizona says.

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.

Washington, D.C. is what is broken, not the immigration policies. We have good laws. We have people suffer every day because of government's failure to enforce the law and be respectful to the process we have. We have a pathway to citizenship already in place.

Whether we start with a provisional status and legal permanent residence... or we set up some other way to assimilate legally, you can't ever put in something that says, 'You can never become a citizen.' That's un-American.

I am a naturalized U.S. citizen, which means that, unlike native-born citizens, I had to prove to the U.S. government that I merited citizenship.

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

Do all children have some inherent right to live in America if they have done nothing wrong? If not, then why should the children of illegal immigrants have such a right?

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

This grant of citizenship to U.S.-born offspring is one of several factors that make illegal immigration attractive. The primary draw, of course, is the availability of jobs, but there is evidence that at least some illegal immigration is for the purpose of gaining citizenship.