Quotes About Immigration

Both my mother and my father grew up in Asia, in a time of political instability. They'd earned college degrees before setting foot in the States but had to work menial jobs early on in order to make ends meet.

My sister and I were born in Chile and raised in the States, and my little brothers were born in the States and raised in Chile after my parents moved back in 1995.

Each Dreamer in our country is more than a mere statistic; he or she is a proud American in everything but official documentation.

As I looked up at the Statue of Liberty, I thought at that time, 'What a wonderful country.'

I've asked every grammar schoolteacher in the nation to have their students write on the meaning of the Statue of Liberty. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the winning kid got up to the microphone and, in front of the world, had to dig into a pocket to pull out a crumpled sheet of paper containing the words that would move us all?

When my mother, sisters and I arrived on the shores of America when I was 8 years old, the boat on which we came, a freighter, passed the Statue of Liberty.

The first time I saw America was from my perch on the mast of a Spanish naval ship, where I could spot the Statue of Liberty reaching proudly into the open, endless American sky.

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.

The diversity lottery program is a proven method of offering a path to legal permanent status for residents of African nations and other underrepresented regions seeking a better life here in the United States.

There is no constitutional right for a citizen in a foreign country, who has no status in America, to demand entry into our country. Such a right cannot exist. Such a right will never exist.

The criminal justice system should have the authority to determine the immigration status of all criminals, regardless of race or ethnicity, and report illegal immigrants who commit crimes to federal authorities.

Why should citizenship be a matter of birth? The premise held by those who want to end birthright citizenship is that some people deserve it and some do not - that the status shouldn't be handed out automatically. Frankly, that's a premise worth considering.

The only real solution is comprehensive immigration reform that secures our borders and provides a path to legal status for non-felons who are here without proper legal documentation.

I don't want to take away deferred status from anyone who has it, but I also didn't want to send the message that it is OK to come here illegally.

We should encourage people who have lived here peacefully for years to earn legal status over time.

I want to enable the Windrush generation to acquire the status that they deserve - British citizenship - quickly, at no cost, and with proactive assistance through the process.

The federal government is responsible for addressing how to address the status of the estimated 9 to 15 million people who are in the country illegally, but local and state law enforcement can be helpful partners in that regard.

Most people who came here came for economic reasons or sometimes for religious or political reasons. I didn't have any of this. I came here, I liked it, I stayed. So I'm a pure American - even more than people who are born here - because I did it by choice as an adult.

People have this impression that once you move to America, that becomes your interest. But I never moved to Los Angeles; I stayed in New York because I do theatre, so my aim is not just Hollywood.

Those who came to France came to find France, not to turn it into their country of origin. If that's what they wanted, they should've stayed in their country.

I wouldn't have been born if my parents had stayed in China. Which is kind of funny. But it also just kind of fills me with this existential dread.

Certainly there are many Congress members who have been arrested in the past on immigration issues and will continue to because we all understand that staying silent is not an option.

I came over here with $100; it was 1983 and I just ended up staying. New York at that time was very inexpensive and it was very easy to get a job. We lived on Staten Island and you could get cheap rent. It was a good time to be in New York.

When immigration proceeds at a steady but modest clip, deep change comes slowly, and there's time for assimilation to do its work.