Quotes About Immigration

I was fresh off the boat from Romania, and one of my clients was the agent to all of the '90s supermodels: Gail Elliott, Naomi Campbell, Stephanie Seymour, Cindy Crawford. I had no idea who these girls were! They were so gorgeous, absolutely the most beautiful women I have ever seen in my life.

There are women crossing the border, finding border control agents to turn themselves in so they can begin the process of asylum, only to have their children taken from them with no idea of where they're going or when they'll see them again.

He thinks that if we leave the E.U. he's going to be earning a lot more.

They don't trust me. They hate the Irish and the Jews and the Chinese and the Italians, and God knows who all, for coming to America too late. They hate the French and the Mormons on general principles. And they hate the Indians for being in America too early. Who the hell do they like?

Now, where are [Mexican illegal immigrants] fleeing from? Mostly from Central America, where they're fleeing from the results of our policies.

In another country they would have been criminals, but this was America.

a new wave of immigrants would replace the Irish, fleeing a different but no less abject country, the process starting anew. The engine huffed and groaned and kept running. They had merely switched the fuel that moved the pistons. The

another country they would have been criminals, but this was America.

In America you could lose everything except the memory of your original name.

database at Ellis Island

While the Irish and the Germans and the Swedes crowded onto steamship decks, waving as the pale green torch of the Statue of Liberty came into view, the coolies had to find other means to reach the land where all men were created equal.

In Chinatowns, the lives of all those paper sons were fragile and easily torn. Everyone's name was false. Everyone hoped not to be found out and sent back. Everyone clustered together so they wouldn't stand out.

The deportation proceedings and appeals would last for fifteen years, but they were always hanging over Russell's head. In the end when he lost his last appeal and had packed his bags and had his tickets, I recommended a lawyer to him who went through the Italian government, spread a little lira, and got it so the Italian government refused to take Russell, and that was that. America had to keep him.

What do I mean?' said Bill. 'Why, THAT. All men are alike in the U-nited States, an't they? It makes no odds whether a man has a thousand pound, or nothing, there. Particular in New York, I'm told, where Ned landed.' 'New York, was it?' asked Martin, thoughtfully.

A Wall for the Mexican border was passed, and billions approved in 2006 [H.R. 6061 (109th): Secure Fence Act of 2006] , with the votes of Senators Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Ouch! Facts hurt.

It must be said that "winning" the green card is a misnomer. We had simply won the right to formally apply and have our application processed. We still had to pay for all the processing.

the vile political rhetoric that has been ongoing in the USA for the past few years has made me doubt my reasons for becoming a U.S. citizen a few times—but not enough to change my mind. Despite what the world may think of America, the truth is that more people want to get in than want to get out.

The first generation of immigrants commit themselves to a lifetime of labor, not assimilation—that's the job of the children.

Pocho: An Americanized Mexican.

We must consider the infinite varieties of Mexican food in the United States as part of the Mexican family—not a fraud, not a lesser sibling, but an equal.

The United States in the 1890s was in the midst of a tamale man invasion that strolled hand in hand with the chili con carne craze.

1954, when the Eisenhower administration launched a program to deport all illegal immigrants. But America being America, la migra rounded up Mexican-Americans, legal immigrants—anyone who was brown, really. The program's name? Operation Wetback. The American experience is cyclical, of course, so expect Americans to soon begin calling Mexicans Sensenbeaners.

the Statue of Liberty, a gigantic copper reminder that this city was a grinding factory that diced the poor man's dreams worse than any cotton gin or sugarcane field from the old country.

Here's something that might not occur to you: If a state trooper sees a weird, patchwork Toyota Echo hurtling down 1-95, and it looks like half of a small country is immigrating to the States in this one little car, you might get stopped.