Joseph Cannon Quotes

The laws should be rigidly enforced which prohibit the immigration of a servile class to compete with American labor, with no intention of acquiring citizenship, and bringing with them and retaining habits and customs repugnant to our civilization.

Britain’s efforts to restrict immigration have become “a very large obstacle” to hiring the best scientists.

There is no moral high ground from which President Trump or any of his followers can tell anyone to leave this country, because they are not the first inhabitants of this land. They should instead look into their history to learn where, when and why their ancestors came to this country.

People tend to forget that in our country, we'd pretty much all be immigrants, except for the Native Americans.

I had fought against the unjust restriction of immigration.

Resolutions of the State Council of Ohio, Junior Order of United American Mechanics urging passage of laws to prevent the landing on our shores of the vicious, lawless, pauperized, and anarchistic elements of foreign countries.

First of all, stop immigration immediately!

Our naturalization and immigration laws should be further improved to the constant promotion of a safer, a better, and a higher citizenship. A grave peril to the Republic would be a citizenship too ignorant to understand or too vicious to appreciate the great value and beneficence of our institutions and laws, and against all who come here to make war upon them our gates must be promptly and tightly closed.

Hereafter no State court or court of the United States shall admit Chinese to citizenship; and all laws in conflict with this act are hereby repealed.

Our country is a country where immigration is history and it is a country where immigration is destiny.

For many decades the country was very sparsely settled. There was abundant free land. Labor was scarce. The number of immigrants was still very small, and nearly all of them were sturdy pioneers, essentially homogeneous and readily assimilated. There was, therefore, little need to worry about any immigration "problems," and it was comforting to the consciences of our ancestors to keep the doors wide open.

Our forefathers increased and decreased the influx of peoples because America was building a melting pot and because certain ethnicities often brought with them certain securities and degrees of productivity.

We went 60 years or more with no immigration, folks. It can be done. The only reason that it started up again, Ted Kennedy started bellyaching about it in the mid-sixties, and then that led to Simpson-Mazzoli 20 years later, 1986, amnesty for about 3.9 million, and we were told that would be it, never again, and of course now we're where we are.

All the problems we face in the United States today can be traced to an unenlightened immigration policy on the part of the American Indian.

At times in the past, the U.S. did not restrict the number of immigrants.

My father, a refugee from Eastern Europe, was preparing a fraudulent marriage to an American citizen as a route to this country when he was sponsored, making fraud unnecessary. My wife's grandfather bought papers from another Chinese villager to be able to come to the United States.

For a few years, more people have been leaving our country than entering it. Wherever it is possible, we must lower the entry hurdles for those who bring the country forward.

There are compelling reasons to implement a true America First immigration plan, starting with border security. We are a land of immigrants. Immigration, with assimilation, has generally been good for America.

First of all, we haven't always welcomed immigrants.

In 1939 I hadn't even realized that this was an immigration problem.

Thus, biologically speaking the American people are literally only half an immigrant people.

The U.K. needs a system for family migration underpinned by three simple principles. One: that those who come here should do so on the basis of a genuine relationship. Two: that migrants should be able to pay their way. And three: that they are able to integrate into British society.

Courts have long recognized the federal government's robust power to inspect people and goods entering the country. After all, the very foundation of national sovereignty is a nation's ability to protect its borders.

People who say that there's a vote within the Republican Party that moves against immigrants is just factually not accurate.

No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws, and love our traditions should ever feel unwelcome in this country. At the same time, that does not mean we just flat out open our borders. We can't do that.