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When you talk about the problem of illegal immigration, people are angry and polarized. When you talk about the answers, the debate gets a little different.
Sep 10, 2025
Donald Trump's opponents believe are governing illegal immigration, the racism and so forth that they believe is why Trump wants to build a wall, because the nation is racist. The people that want to end illegal immigration, according to these idiots, are racists and bigots. They couldn't see they are way clear to understand that illegal immigration wasn't being talked about.
Look, for example, at the obvious, immediate, practical example of illegal Mexican immigration. Now, that Mexican immigration, over the border, is a good thing. It's a good thing for the illegal immigrants. It's a good thing for the United States. It's a good thing for the citizens of the country. But, it's only good so long as its illegal....
I understand Donald Trump's goals. That's why I supported him for president. I share his beliefs that we've got to do more about crime, more about illegal immigration, more about gangs and violence and it's an honor and a pleasure to be able to lead that effort.
Obamacare premiums are of no concern to people in the establishment. Same thing with illegal immigration, same thing with trade deals.
Illegal immigrants in considerable numbers have become productive members of our society and are a basic part of our work force. Those who have established equities in the United States should be recognized and accorded legal status. At the same time, in so doing, we must not encourage illegal immigration.
This election [2016], and I believe this, is our last chance to secure the border, stop illegal immigration and reform our laws to make your life better.
The federal government has failed us, so we, the elected officials of small-town America, are getting tough with illegal immigration.
By stopping the flow of illegal immigration, we will save countless tax dollars, and that's so important because the tax - the dollars that we're losing are beyond anything that you can imagine. And the tax dollars that can be used to rebuild struggling American communities - including our inner cities.
Most illegal immigrants are not by nature lawbreakers. Most are looking for the chance to live in dignity. Nevertheless we must continue to discourage illegal immigration for it undermines control of our borders...and even more punishes hard-working people who play by the rules and who wait for their turn to come to the United States. Therefore we must enforce our laws, but we will do so with justice and fairness.
[Donald] Trump is touching a nerve because people want the wall to be built. They want to see an end to illegal immigration. They want to see it, and we all do. But we all have different ways of getting there.
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.
Illegal immigration is going to stop. It's dangerous.
Our nation stands at the crossroads of liberty. Crushing national debt, rampant illegal immigration, insane business regulations and staggering national unemployment are pushing our nation into unchartered territory.
One of the critical issues that we have to confront is illegal immigration, because this is a multi-headed Hydra that affects our economy, our health care, our health care, our education systems, our national security, and also our local criminality.
There's tremendous crime and illegal immigration is just incredible. As far as Rubio, he's very weak on immigration, you know, I have great relations with Mexico and I love the Mexican people, and the spirit of the Mexican people. These are people just pouring across the border.
This is a serious problem of major concern, and we have got to approach it in a way that is consistent with this nation's tradition as a nation of immigrants, focusing on legal immigration, supporting that in the right way and doing everything possible consistent with the Constitution to control illegal immigration, and we will continue in those efforts.
Based on my experience as a prosecutor in Miami, illegal immigration is one of the most critical issues facing this country. As a prosecutor, I felt the burden of it. I think what's important... is for the state and the federal government and for local governments to work together to do everything possible to control illegal immigration in a comprehensive way.
We're in a mess in America, and it's because of what you think. We're in a mess because of your party. We're in a mess, Mrs. Clinton, because you've been there. You were responsible for this economy. You're responsible our foreign policy. You're responsible for the massive illegal immigration.
I mean, you take a look at this, it's one way. [Mexicans] get the jobs, they get the factories, they get the cash, and all we get - we get illegal immigration and we get drugs.
The Democratic Party is a closed clique. They are not the best and brightest. They're not the smartest. They haven't had to prove themselves in the market in many of these peoples' cases, the career politicians. This is the establishment. This is the elites. Their concerns just have very little in common. Illegal immigration, to complain about it is so, so uninformed and so small-minded. They never encounter, they never face the consequences of their own laws. They don't face the consequences of their own directives or actions.
Legal immigration is good for America, if it's controlled and structured via the legal process, of course. But the problem is the system we have in place right now is broken. For example, it is completely family based which means that it's based not on what you can do or what talent you have or what merit you bring or what job you could fill, but rather on whether you know someone who already lives here.
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
We have no borders. Our vets are being treated horribly. Illegal immigration is beyond belief.
After a migratory crisis on the border with minors coming over that you're seeing start up again now, after all these executive orders the President has issued. More than ever we need to prove to people that illegal immigration is under control.
Illegal immigration is not just a matter of interest in states along our border with Mexico. It is having an effect on local economies, schools, health care delivery, and public safety all across the country.
I want people to know that I am tough on illegal immigration and we are working to provide needed border security.
House Republicans want to pass a strong border security, illegal immigration bill. We want a bill. There is no ifs, ands or buts about it.
It's absolutely the wrong signal, I think, to those who have entered this country legally or those who may be considering illegal immigration for a lot of benefits to be provided... Emergency medical needs should be met, but otherwise I think send the wrong signal to those who have come into the country legally and those who may be considering illegal immigration. So as you know, I've called for an increase in the border patrol agents. I've looked at that from both the standpoints of drugs and to prevent illegal immigration, but I think that's where the focus should be.
Quite simply, federal laws already on the books aimed at stopping the flow of illegal immigration must be enforced. Furthermore, states must be given the resources necessary to confront the problem, which includes strengthening the border patrol.
Illegal immigration is a genuinely national issue, and resolving it requires a national commitment not just on health care but also border control, law enforcement and other resources.
Illegal immigration costs taxpayers $45 billion a year in health care, education, and incarceration expenses.
This is the sheriff you’re talking about, with a gun and badge that enforces the law. Nothing is going to stop me from cracking down on illegal immigration as long as the laws are there.
I said, the pope is saying bad things about me the day before the election? And then I gathered myself, and I realized that it had to do with illegal immigration, that he was opposed to my measures, which is basically creating a border.
...we must face the fact that unilateral action on the part of the United States will never be enough to stop illegal immigration. Immigrants come here illegally from source countries where conditions prevail that encourage or even compel them to leave. Attacking the causes of illegal migration is essential and will require international cooperation.
Donald Trump has a plan, that he laid out in Arizona, that will deal systematically with illegal immigration, beginning with border security, internal enforcement. It's probably why for the first time in the history of immigrations and customs enforcement, their union actually endorsed Donald Trump as the next president of the United States, because they know they need help to enforce the laws of this country.
I will argue until my last breath for a pathway to citizenship that is quick and efficient because I want to end this chapter. I want to end it...But let me say, conversely, I am as committed as any Republican to ending illegal immigration as we know it...They want to end it. So do I.
I think we need a real plan, which is why I have offered a much more specific approach to securing the border, fixing the legal immigration system and addressing illegal immigration.
The newspaper is under fire for refusing to kowtow to left-wing word police and militant propagandists who demand unfettered illegal immigration. Last week, in the wake of angry protests against the publication, vandals threw paint bombs and spray-painted graffiti on its offices.
We will break the cycle of amnesty and illegal immigration. There will be no amnesty.
In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American.
Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
I support local solutions to illegal immigration as protected by the 10th amendment. I support making English the official language of all documents and contracts.
You want to trace California's move to the far left, you go back to the 1986 Simpson-Mazzoli bill. Simpson-Mazzoli was where we granted amnesty to, at the time, what was three and a half million illegal aliens. And that's it. We were told that would be it. We would start being strict about guarding the borders and making sure that there wasn't any more illegal immigration, but that didn't happen. That was the design. Ted Kennedy, Simpson-Mazzoli, it was their idea here and it's worked out magnificently for them to this extent.
The Commission agrees that the federal government should help alleviate these costs. The best way to do so is to reduce illegal immigration.... We recommend immediate reimbursement of criminal justice costs, because these conditions can now be met, but we urge further study of the costs of health care and education before impact aid is provided.
The specific question was visa overstays.Current federal law requires a biometric exit-entry system when you come in on a visa. And the [Barack] Obama administration is just ignoring federal law. Forty percent of illegal immigration is not people who cross the borders illegally. It's people who come legally on a visa and never leave.
ACORN, you may recall, is the left-wing activist group with longtime ties to community organizer-turned-President Barack Obama. The nonprofit, which now takes in 40 percent of its revenues from American taxpayers after four decades on the public teat, has a history of engaging in voter fraud, corporate shakedowns, partisan bullying and pro-illegal immigration lobbying. The Democrats' stimulus proposals could make the group - and its lesser known but even more radical ideological allies - eligible for upward of $5 billion in new public cash.
In the old days when I was enforcing illegal immigration laws, when I had the authority from the 287G, everybody accused me that 100,000 people from foreign countries left town. They either went back to where they came from or whatever. So if this little old sheriff can cause, if you want to believe it, many, many people leaving and going back to their country, why can't you do that nationwide?
Importantly, in several years when we have accomplished all of our enforcement and deportation goals and truly ended illegal immigration for good, including the construction of a great wall, which we will have built in record time. And at a reasonable cost, which you never hear from the government.
I would just say it's not good for the country to have 11 million people here who we don't know who they are, where they're living. They're not paying taxes, but they're showing up in emergency rooms. They're driving up the cost of auto insurance 'cause they don't have driver's licenses and are getting into accidents. They're having children, which are US citizens. So, I mean, it's an issue that needs to be dealt with.