Immigration Reform Now
A project of the
Republican National Hispanic Assembly (RNHA)
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Immigration Reform Now
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Quotes on Immigration
President George W. Bush"Family values do not stop at the Rio Grande. If you're a mother and father with hungry children, you are going to try to put food on the table. That's reality. That's called love." Responding to voters at a town hall meeting that were calling for draconian measures against immigration. South Carolina 2000 Presidential Campaign. "Latinos come to the US to seek the same dreams that have inspired millions of others: they want a better life for their children. Family values do not stop at the Rio Grande. Latinos enrich our country with faith in God, a strong ethic of work, community & responsibility. We can all learn from the strength, solidarity, & values of Latinos. Immigration is not a problem to be solved, it is the sign of a successful nation. New Americans are to be welcomed as neighbors and not to be feared as strangers." Speech in Washington, D.C. Jun 26, 2000 "America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. And every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American." Inaugural Address, Jan 20, 2001 "We hear claims that immigrants are somehow bad for the economy, even though this economy could not function without them. All these are forms of economic retreat, and they lead in the same direction, toward a stagnant and second-rate economy." "Keeping America competitive requires an immigration system that upholds our laws, reflects our values, and serves the interests of our economy. Our Nation needs orderly and secure borders. To meet this goal, we must have stronger immigration enforcement and border protection. And we must have a rational, humane guest worker program that rejects amnesty … allows temporary jobs for people who seek them legally … and reduces smuggling and crime at the border." State of the Union Address, Jan 31, 2006 Back to TopPresident Ronald Reagan“I've said on a number of occasions that I can't help but believe—you can call it mysticism if you will—that God must have placed this land here between the oceans to be found by a certain kind of people and a kind only in one thing: that whatever corner of the world they came from, they had the courage—and the desire for freedom that went with it—to uproot themselves and come to this strange land, beginning back when it was the most underdeveloped land in the world, and come here leaving family and come to a strange language and everything that went with that kind of a move. “Many who passed through the gates at Ellis Island had little more than what they carried with them, yet they possessed a determination that with hard work and freedom, they would live a better life and their children even more so. They were captured by the American dream. And both they and their new country were the better for their efforts and their faith, because they not only came here for something but just as they came from every corner of the world, they brought something from every corner of the world to this great melting pot. And maybe in so doing, they proved how artificial are the prejudices and the hatreds that exist in the world, because we proved that we could all mix ...” Remarks Announcing the Formation of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Centennial Commission, May 18, 1982 “...it makes one wonder about the illegal alien fuss. Are great numbers of our unemployed really victims of the illegal alien invasion or are those illegal tourists actually doing work our own people won't do? One thing is certain in this hungry world; no regulation or law should be allowed if it results in crops rotting in the fields for lack of harvesters.” From a Radio Address entitled "Apples," dated November 29, 1977. "I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it and see it still." Farewell Address January 11, 1989 "You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman; you can go to live in Germany, you cannot become a German— or a Turk, or a Greek, or whatever. But anyone, from any corner of the world, can come to live in America and become an American." "You have to realize that we are a people that are made up of every
strain, nationality, and race of the world. And the result is that when people
in our country think someone is being mistreated or treated unjustly in another
country, these are people who still feel that kinship to that country because
that is their heritage. In America, whenever you meet someone new and become
friends, one of the first things you tell each other is what your bloodline is.
For example, when I'm asked, I have to say Irish, English, and Scotch—English
and Scotch on my mother's side, Irish on my father's side. But all of them have
that." Question-and-answer session with the students and faculty at Moscow State
University, May 31, 1988 Back to TopRepublican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman"When the law ignores the law of supply and demand, the law fails." In a town hall meeting explaining why in spite of continued investments in border security, the number of illegal immigrants keeps going up. November 2005. Back to TopAlan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board."Immigration, if we choose to expand it, could lessen the decline of labor force growth in the United States. As the influx of foreign workers that occurred in response to the tight labor markets of the 1990s demonstrated, U.S. immigration does respond to evolving economic conditions. But to fully offset the effects of the decline in fertility, immigration would have to be much larger than almost all current projections assume." Alan Greenspan, at a symposium sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, August 27 2004 "To assume that productivity can continue to accelerate to rates well
above the current underlying pace would be a stretch, even for our very dynamic
economy. So, short of a major increase in immigration, economic growth
cannot be safely counted upon to eliminate deficits and the difficult choices
that will be required to restore fiscal discipline." Back to TopRep John Boehner, Republican Leader of the House of Representatives“We can’t strengthen our nation’s borders by strangling our nation’s economy. This bill has many strong points and I wanted badly to vote for it. But the massive employer mandates included in the bill ultimately made that impossible. Under the guise of securing our borders, this bill gives the federal government authority to sign-off on every hiring decision in the country. Federal bureaucrats will have Americans’ personal information at the touch of a button. This has ‘Big Brother’ written all over it.” In his statement explaining why he voted against HR 4437, a bill he called well intentioned but fatally flawed. Dec 2005 Back to TopRep. Mike Turner, Republican from Ohio's 3rd CD"My concern with the legislation is that it makes all illegal immigrants felons. The extreme punishments in the bill mandate that those who assist illegal aliens are also felons. " "I look forward to an opportunity to vote for immigration reform that strengthens our borders and protects the homeland. If the Senate sends back to the House a bill that meets my guiding principles, without turning good Samaritans into felons, I look forward to the opportunity to vote for an immigration reform bill, as it is clearly needed." In his statement on why he voted against H.R. 4437. Back to Top |
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