Amnesty Debate Quotes

I will never support amnesty legislation because it will not work.

I do not support amnesty. I do not support driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants.

To say that Reagan teaches us that we should be against amnesty for illegal immigrants is to contradict what Reagan himself stood for - that he was in favor of amnesty.

It is a lie that to talk to Hispanics you have to talk about amnesty. Let me tell you, the only Hispanics that are in favor of amnesty are the illegals.

...you're never going to have a legal immigration system that works if you grant amnesty.

My constituents feel betrayed by the promise that Reagan made, that if we grant amnesty, we'll then secure the border. We obviously didn't do that.

I introduced legislation in the Senate to prohibit President Obama's amnesty. The House of Representatives stood up and led. It took the legislation I introduced and it passed it. But the Senate Democrats stood as one uniform block and said, 'No, we will do nothing to stop amnesty.'

Amnesty is a disaster, we need strong borders. We have no country if we have no border. In New Hampshire, the biggest complaint is heroin, pouring across the southern border. We have to have strong borders, keep the drugs out. I want a wall. I want to get the drug lords out; then we can at a later date make a determination as to the rest.

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'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.

After 2012, all of the Washington political consultants and all the mainstream media came to Republicans and said, 'You've got to do better with Hispanics, and the way to do better with Hispanics is to embrace amnesty.' And, look, a lot of Republicans in Washington were scared.

You cannot grant amnesty. If the American people see us granting amnesty they will never again believe in legal immigration. They will never again support it, and that's wrong for our country, bad for our future.

Most Americans do not support amnesty, especially without securing the borders.