Michael McCaul Quotes

He has attempted to muddy the waters, but I think anyone that watched the battle that we had - you know, there was a time for choosing, as Ronald Reagan put it, where there was a battle over amnesty. And some chose, like Sen. Marco Rubio, to stand with Barack Obama and Chuck Schumer and support a massive amnesty plan.

I introduced bill saying we need more security, we need more scrutiny. Once again, Marco [Rubio] opposed this. So Marco can't have it both ways. He thinks he wants to be this, "Oh, I'm great and strong on national defense." But he's the weakest of all the candidates on immigration. He is the one for an open border that is leaving us defenseless.

I do feel immigration will probably be dealt with as long as [the solution] doesn't provide amnesty ... Five years ago, all hell broke loose ... This year, I thought phones would ring off the hook again. They really haven't. I think everybody realizes we have a problem.

I don't know what 'operational control' of the border means, but I do understand the English language. And as I understand that phrase, that's not true. We do not have operational control.

We need to fix Washington, D.C. and states need to fix their sanctuary policies. That's the problem.

If you can’t control your borders, you can’t control immigration. And if we can’t control immigration, there is no way re can reform immigration.

Immigration reform is something that the Democrats have promised and the Republicans need.

We need to pass comprehensive immigration reform, period.

It is in our national interest for Congress to act on immigration reform in a comprehensive manner.

We must pass immigration reform.

So let us take our fair share of the true refugees and act responsible as a government in providing for their necessary expenses. Let us stop skewing the whole process by taking some folks who are not truly refugees in order simply to meet our foreign policy needs or domestic policy demands. There has to be a better way to meet those needs and demands than we are doing now. I think it is embarrassing to all of us who truly know the mission of the Refugee Act.

The president began this program by executive order. He should immediately end it by executive order. For over a year now, he has said the program is illegal, and yet he does nothing.

The immigration bill is going to pass. We're going to have a bill. It's going to get through the Senate. I think the fundamentals are there and the foundation is strong and the bill is going to happen. The House is going to be trickier, but I think it's going to happen there too.

We have to do immigration reform while the pro-deportation crew is still reeling.

What does have a chance of becoming law is a process that begins with securing the border. Currently the border is not secure and not just immigrants are coming across, but also drugs, weapons a whole series of problems. And I think that if you can prove to the American people that illegal immigration is under control, I think that the American people are willing to do something very reasonable about people who have been here for many years, who are not criminals, who are going to pay a fine, who are going to pay taxes, who are working.

There is one way, only one way to solve it, and that is through legislation. It cannot be through an unconstitutional executive order that violates the Constitution. That is, it doesn't matter here what you think about immigration: here you cannot violate the nation's Constitution, period.

[Donald Trump] can do it [build the wall] by executive order by just re-programming money within the within the Immigration Service.

The politics, policies, the President [Barack Obama] and the American people are all pointing in the right direction to fix our immigration system and pass legislation this year.

I think we need a real plan, which is why I have offered a much more specific approach to securing the border, fixing the legal immigration system and addressing illegal immigration.

The good news is that we really do think that ... on the immigration issue, that we will, before summer, have comprehensive immigration reform.

I think that [John Kelly] will bring law and order. And what I'm hoping for with this is that the restoration of the rule of law, especially with regard to immigration, that is the main principle that needs to be driven by the secretary of homeland security.

I think people have good ideas on this. Clearly, we need to secure the border. Coming here legally needs to be a lot easier than coming here illegally.

Whoever wins in 2016, I'm pretty sure it's going to be a Republican, I think they should make it their goal to seal that border within a year.

I have been for border security for years. I voted for border security in the United States Senate. And my comprehensive immigration reform plan of course includes border security.

I like Donald Trump. I appreciate that he's focusing on illegal immigration. It's an issue I've been fighting a long, long time. I think people are very concerned, for example, about the problems of sanctuary cities and - and that is something that's a - that people are finally turning their attention to.