Ed Koch Quotes

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 human being can be good or bad or right or wrong, maybe. But how can you say a person is illegal? You just can't. That's all there is to it.

How can I justify the Cuban Adjustment Act when there are people coming from Cuba saying that they come - that they have - that they should be treated differently from other migrants? But they're going back to that country.

Illegal immigrants should be required to return to their home country.

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 Constitution of the United States... specifically states the Congress shall write legislation for immigration policy in the United States.

Mexicans are quasi-legal.

I would expect illegal alien parents to take care of their children. If it means the kids go back home with them, that's what happens. If it means there are legal relatives in the United States that can take care of them, that can happen to. But I believe it's the parents responsibility to take care of the kids.

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.

No migrant of any religion has a constitutional right to come to the United States.

Our policy is if you break the law, we will prosecute you. You have an option to go to a port of entry and not illegally cross into our country.

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.

Stopping and returning illegal migrants to their countries of origin must become standard procedure.

While this country has always had a generous immigration policy, we simply cannot condone individuals coming here illegally.

Immigration customs enforcement is a role that makes sense. We have to have something that is doing that.

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.

In countries where people have to flee their homes because of persecution and violence, political solutions must be found, peace and tolerance restored, so that refugees can return home. In my experience, going home is the deepest wish of most refugees.

Going back to the discussion we were having about immigration reform, some of the most challenging discussions I've had are with activists who essentially would argue that any immigrant from Central America, let's say, who gets here to this country should be allowed to stay because their country is dangerous, their country is poor, and the opportunities for that mom and that kid are much greater here, and why would you send them back?

I take issue with many people's description of people being illegal Immigrants. There aren't any illegal Human Beings as far as I'm concerned.

[Illegal immigration] costs the taxpayers of the United States a lot of money. And it's unfair to Americans who are working every day to pay their own bills. It's also unfair to a lot of people who have waited in line for years and years in other countries to be legal immigrants.

I talked about deporting people that are here illegally. They're here illegally. We either have a country or we don't. I talked about deporting people that are here illegally.

I have a very hardline position, we have a country or we don't have a country. People that have come into our country illegally, they have to go. They have to come back into through a legal process.

Under my administration, anyone who illegally crosses the border will be detained until they are removed out of our country and back to the country from which they came.

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.

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.