Elaine Chao Quotes

The 1986 act didn't turn illegal immigrants into citizens on the spot. It granted temporary resident status only to those who could prove they had resided continuously in America for five years. After 18 months, their status could be upgraded to permanent residency, and only after another five years could they become U.S. citizens.

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.

Millions of us, myself included, go back generations in this country, with ancestors who put in the painstaking work to become citizens. So we don't like the notion that anyone might get a free pass to American citizenship.

You follow the law. Every few months, you need to fly back to Europe and stamp your visa. After a few visas, I applied for a green card and got it in 2001. After the green card, I applied for citizenship. And it was a long process.

We have 11 million people in this country that need a pathway to citizenship.

The Supreme Court has only granted citizenship to the children born to legal immigrants, not illegal.

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.

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

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.

These are people who haven't gone through the legal means to becoming citizens like our forefathers did. They want all the benefits but none of the responsibilities.

Remember the Dreamers whose patriotism was praised when the Democratic House passed, and the Senate filibustered - the DREAM Act in 2010? Washington promised a path to citizenship, not just a roadblock to deportation.

If those who wrote and ratified the 14th Amendment had imagined laws restricting immigration - and had anticipated huge waves of illegal immigration - is it reasonable to presume they would have wanted to provide the reward of citizenship to the children of the violators of those laws? Surely not.

Citizenship obtained through naturalization is not a second-class citizenship.

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.

We are not going to round up and deport 12 million people, but we're not going to hand out citizenship cards, either. There will be a process. We will see what the American people are willing to support. But it will not be unconstitutional executive orders like the ones Barack Obama has forced on us.

Foreigners may be admitted to citizenship by naturalization, either collectively or individually. Collective naturalization may occur when a foreign territory and its inhabitants are transferred to the United States.

Everyone that've been here, working, living as Americans - just give them a green card.

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

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

I just always believe that we should not reward people with citizenship whose first act in this country was a violation of the law. And I continue to hold that view. But let me say, I think there is plenty of room here for compassion. And there's plenty of room here for crafting a solution that will deal with this issue in the long term.

Any proposal that allows people who are here illegally to cut to the front of the line is amnesty.

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.

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

[Barak Obama] just said children who are Americans or legal residents, they will remain low priorities for enforcement - meaning deportation - as long as they've not.