Legalization Process Quotes

No. 1, it [amnesty for illegal aliens] demoralizes the people that are going through the legal process. It's a very clear signal that why go through the legal process if you can accomplish the same thing through the illegal process? And No. 2, it demoralizes the people enforcing the law. So I am not and I will never support - never have and never will support - any effort to grant blanket legalization amnesty to folks who have entered or stayed in this country illegally.

Just as the process of repealing national alcohol prohibition began with individual states repealing their own prohibition laws, so individual states must now take the initiative with respect to repealing marijuana prohibition laws.

There isn’t any sensible approach except to do what we need to do simultaneously—secure our borders with technology, personnel, physical barriers if necessary in some places. And we need to have tougher employer sanctions and we need to try to incentivize Mexico to do more and we need to create the environment in which we get people out of the shadows and then give them some earned right to legalization that will enable them to continue to work. If they’ve committed transgressions of whatever kind, they should be obviously deported. But that won’t stop it unless Mexico and their neighbors to the south actually let these hard-working people have a future in their own countries.

Throughout my childhood, I watched my parents try to become legal but to no avail. They lost their money to people they believed to be attorneys but who ultimately never helped. That meant my childhood was haunted by the fear that they would be deported.

We feel a pathway to citizenship would reward illegal activity, ... Amnesty encourages further illegal immigration.

The White House announced that it has rejected several petitions to legalize marijuana. They say it has nothing to do with politics. It's just that they can't accept a petition that was written on a crumpled up Funyuns bag.

Over a period of time, they [undocumented workers] can have a legalized status that allows them to live a life of dignity but not necessarily a path to citizenship, so as to not create incentives for future people that aspire to come to our country to do so illegally when they could come legally.

We have to identify everybody that's here, and there's going to be an appropriate discussion in Congress on how to deal with an individual who has been here maybe for some long period of time. Amnesty is not on the table period. There will be no amnesty in the United States. We're a country of law and the idea that we're going to tell people that somehow or another that that's all forgiven is not going to happen. How we deal with them is a conversation. I don't know if I know all the answers. I want to talk to the American people.

I support the framework that the bipartisan group of senators are working on...We have to remember the 11 million people who are here are people...[i]t's what Abraham Lincoln would have said, it is what the Republican Party stands for. It is the reason we have to get it right on who stays and who goes.

I do believe that if you continually go through a cycle of amnesty, that you undermine the respect for the law and encourage more illegal immigration into America.

But simply someone who broke the law, came here, say, 'I'll give you citizenship now,' that I don't think is going to happen.

After ensuring border security, I then would normalize the status of 11 million undocumented citizens so they can join the work force and pay taxes...I would normalize them at a rate of about two million per year.

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.

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.

The time for common-sense immigration reform is now," Grayson said in a news release. "We must set forth a straightforward route to citizenship for the undocumented immigrants who already live in our communities, work for our businesses and want to give back to the country that they call home.

We've come to a basic agreement, which is that first, people will be legalized. In other words, not citizens, but they’ll be allowed to work, come out of the shadows, travel. Then, we will make sure the border is secure. And we have specific metrics that are in the bill. I’m not going to get into what they are...

I've made it clear in my reporting that we need a rational, effective and humane system. I don't support amnesty, and for that reason amnesty groups attack me. That's fine, it's a free country. Their attacks don't give me too much concern.

A path to citizenship for those who are here illegally in my view is unfair to those waiting sometimes a decades in line to come here.

Well, I don't think it is amnesty to start with. Second of all, what do you want to do with them? That is the question in response. And third of all, it is a tough path to citizenship. You have to pay back taxes. You've got to learn English. You've got to have a clear record. You've got to get to the back of the line behind other people who have come here legally or waiting legally. So, i just reject that.

We are dealing with the question of the 11 million people paying their taxes, having a path to legalization and, then, ultimately, to citizenship. Tough issues but we are coming together and I think we can do it.

I don't believe in amnesty... What I have proposed is that we would come forth with a program that allows individuals to come forward and to plead guilty... They would have to pay a fine; they would have to go through a background check - some say learn English - and they would get learned legal status.

One thing I think we have to do is to make sure that the undocumented workers who are living in America today, that they have to take responsibility. They've got to register, pay a fine, pay their back taxes, learn English and then get on a pathway in which they could have the prospect of being here legally.

Lost in much of the national debate about immigration reform is how Democrats ultimately stand to gain electorally with any legislation or executive action that would put the newly legalized residents on a path to voting.

Those who come forward will not be offered an automatic pass to citizenship and should be expected to pay a substantial fine or penalty to participate in the temporary program.

Just because they broke the law doesn't mean they're condemned forever to a twilight status. So, I think that most Americans, if these people who have come illegally, as long as they pay back taxes, pay a fine, learn English and get behind everybody else, that's a key element of it. And most Americans now realize we can't have 11 million people sit in the twilight - the shadows of America, forever.