Lamar S. Smith Quotes

One way to sensitize Washington to the illegal alien problem is to make them pay for it.

I was able to see what our border looks like and the fact it is under assault on a daily basis from people trying to bring illegal people and illegal drugs into our country.

There needs to be more pressure on the Mexican government to stop the drugs and illegal immigrants on their side of the border instead of exporting them to the U.S.

Everywhere I travel throughout Eastern Washington, I hear from people demanding we do a better job of controlling our borders and reducing illegal immigration.

I’ve yet to see a customer walk out of a restaurant because his dishes were being washed by an illegal alien.

Illegal immigration undermines legal immigration.

The simple answer to the illegal alien problem is to secure our boarders and enforce the law.

The illegal immigrants may have broken the law, but we have been complicit.

The Federal Government does not control our borders as the law requires …. I haven’t received a response saying that the check is in the mail….When people illegally cross our borders that the Federal Government is supposed to control, the Federal Government should pick up the tab.

The key here is to be fair to the 11 million [illegal immigrants], starting with the [2 million younger illegals] ‘Dreamers'....I’ve stopped letting 30 percent of the people who are mad about immigration determine how I behave. To those who feel like you should deport [younger illegals], boy, I couldn’t disagree with you more…. To the people who object to this, I don’t want you to vote for me because I cannot serve you well.

We have two borders--one with Mexico and the other with Canada, I've done a lot of looking, but I have never seen an illegal Canadian .... Canada has a sound, stable economy, and that's what you need to solve the border problem. That that's why a wall by itself will never work.

Americans are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal immigrants entering this country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by our citizens or legal immigrants, and the public services they use impose burdens on our taxpayers. That's why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders by hiring a record number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before, by cracking down on illegal aliens who try to take American jobs, and by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens.

We all agree on the need to better secure the border and to punish employers who choose to hire illegal immigrants. We are a generous and welcoming people, here in the United States, but those who enter the country illegally, and those who employ them, disrespect the rule of law and they are showing disregard for those who are following the law.

Mr. Trump never made any derogatory or disparaging comments about Mexican immigrants... He was talking about Mexico. They're allowing people to pour through their borders, and that's a problem for our national security.

If you think winning means a porous border with 400,000 people apprehended illegally every year, then your definition of winning is different than mine.

Let's be very clear first off. Nothing has changed about Donald Trump's position on dealing with illegal immigration.

Some people would say we're already under attack by aliens - not space aliens, but illegal aliens.

I think [ immigration] is still is a problem, whether it's 11 million or 2 million. Why is it - why have the situation decreased? Are we going to say because of the crackdown or are we going to say that the jobs are not here?

I'm going to deliver a detailed policy address on one of the greatest challenges facing our country today, illegal immigration.

No one believed [the 1986 amnesty for illegal aliens] was tough enough on illegal immigration, and it didn't give enough flexibility on future legal immigration.

We will hear more details on [Donald] Trump's plans on addressing illegal immigration in the speech tonight, including what Trump plans to do about those 11 million illegal immigrants already in the U.S.

My policy will be to detain and deport every illegal alien who is apprehended in this country. And we'll do it with an expedited hearing process so that millions of illegal aliens are not released into the general population with some hearing date down the road.

In recent days, the media, as it usually does, has missed the whole point on immigration.

We will never stop illegal immigration until this country has a comprehensive, realistic immigration policy.

Our nation's immigration policy has been of top concern in recent years, and for good reason. With between eight and twelve million illegal aliens in the United States, it is obviously a problem out of control.