Campaign Statements — Immigration

Wednesday February 22, 2012

“We need to give law enforcement the opportunity to do…what Sheriff Arpaio was doing.”

“I’m not going to require homeowners to do E-Verify. I think that’s one step too far. But I think what we need to do is to give law enforcement the opportunity to do what they’re doing here in Arizona and what Sheriff Arpaio was doing before he ran into some issues with the federal government, which is to allow folks to enforce the law here in this country, to allow people who are breaking the law or suspicious of breaking the law to be able to be detained and deported if they’re found here in this country illegally, as well as those who are trying to seek employment.

This is enforcing not just upon the employer, but on those who are here illegally and trying to do things that are against the law, like seeking employment here.”

CATEGORIES: Immigration | Rick Santorum |

Wednesday February 22, 2012

“As Arizona is finding out, you can stop illegal immigration.”

“I’ll also complete the fence. I’ll make sure we have enough border patrol agents to secure the fence. And I will make sure we have an E-Verify system and require employers to check the documents of workers, and to check E- Verify. And if an employer hires someone that has not gone through E- Verify, they’re going to get sanctioned just like they do for not paying their taxes.

You do that, and just as Arizona is finding out, you can stop illegal immigration. It’s time we finally did it.”

CATEGORIES: Immigration | Mitt Romney |

Wednesday February 22, 2012

“I think you see a model in Arizona.”

“I think you see a model in Arizona. They passed a law here that says—that says that people who come here and try and find work, that the employer is required to look them up on e- verify. This e-verify system allows employers in Arizona to know who’s here legally and who’s not here legally.

And as a result of e-verify being put in place, the number of people in Arizona that are here illegally has dropped by some 14 percent, where the national average has only gone down 7 percent. So going back to the question that was asked, the right course for America is to drop these lawsuits against Arizona and other states that are trying to do the job Barack Obama isn’t doing. And I will drop those lawsuits on day one.”

CATEGORIES: Immigration | Mitt Romney |

Wednesday February 22, 2012

“The further we have gone with the fence, the fewer people have broken in…”

“Look, the fact is I helped Duncan Hunter pass the first fence bill in San Diego when I was Speaker of the House. San Diego and Tijuana are the most densely populated border. It turned out it worked. It worked dramatically. Duncan and I would be glad to testify—he’s former chairman of the Defense Committee—how much it worked.

However, it stopped. It stopped in part because there was a wetlands. It turned out none of the illegal immigrants cared about wetlands policy. Then you had to go and build around the wetlands, which we did. The further we have gone with the fence, the fewer the people have broken into California.”

CATEGORIES: Immigration | Newt Gingrich |

Wednesday February 22, 2012

“I have a commitment…to finish [the border wall] by January 1, 2014.”

“Now, the thing that’s fascinating, though, John, is you quoted a government study of how much it would cost. That’s my earlier point. If you modernize the federal government so it’s competent, you could probably do it for 10 percent of the cost of that study. The fact is, I have a commitment at newt.org, to finish the job by January 1, 2014, I would initiate a bill that would waive all federal regulations, requirement and studies.

I would ask Governor Brewer here, I would ask Governor Martinez, Governor Brown, and Governor Perry to become the co-leaders in their state. We would apply as many resources as are needed to be done by January 1 of 2014, including, if necessary—there are 23,000 Department of Homeland Security personnel in the D.C. area.

I’m prepared to move up to half of them to Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. This is a doable thing.”

CATEGORIES: Immigration | Newt Gingrich |

Wednesday February 22, 2012

“The program today endorses the illegal problems.”

“But the federal government does have a responsibility for these borders. And I just hate to see all these resources—I think that we should have much more immigration service on the border to make it easier—it’s hard to even get to visit this country. We’re losing a lot of visitors and workers that could come to this country because we have an inefficient immigration service.

And then that invites the illegal. We can’t endorse the illegal, but the program today endorses the illegal problems. And a weak economy is always detrimental, too, because of the welfare state. We have welfare at home and some jobs go begging, we have jobs going begging in this country in the midst of the recession, has to do with the economy.

You can’t ignore the economy. But also the welfare state, allowing immigrants to come over and then get the benefits—if you subsidize something, you get more of. So there’s a lot we can do and should do and certainly this president is not doing a very good job.”

CATEGORIES: Immigration | Ron Paul |

Wednesday February 22, 2012

“We reward illegal immigration. They get benefits.”

“...the best way to [deal the the US-Mexico border] is forget about the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan and deal with our borders, put our resources on this border. This is what we need. But we need to change the rules. We reward illegal immigration. They get benefits, Texas hospitals, and, you know, schools are going bankrupt.

The restraints on the states, and Obama’s restraints on the states to deal with it. Why is it if an illegal comes across the border and they go on private property, why isn’t that trespassing? And why don’t you have the right to stop it? So but there should be no mandates from the federal government about what you must do under the 9th and 10th. There would be essentially none.”

CATEGORIES: Immigration | Ron Paul |

Thursday January 26, 2012

“I believe English should be the official language of the United States.”

“I think our position on English in our schools and in our nation is the same, which I believe English should be the official language of the United States, as it is. I also believe that in our schools, we should teach kids in English.

So, when I was governor, I fought for—actually, before I was governor, I fought for, during my election and thereafter, a program to have English immersion in our schools so our kids could learn in English. I think we agree on this, which is, you know what? Kids in this country should learn English so they can have all the jobs and all the opportunity of people who are here.”

CATEGORIES: Immigration | Mitt Romney |

Thursday January 26, 2012

“No one should be trapped in a linguistic situation where they can’t go out and get a job.”

“What I said was, we want everybody to learn English because we don’t—and I didn’t use the word “Spanish.” We do not want anyone trapped in a situation where they cannot get a commercial job, they cannot rise, and virtually every parent of every ethnic group—and by the way, they are 94 languages spoken at the Miami-Dade College—94 languages. And that’s why I think English should be the official language of government, and that’s why I think every young American should learn English.

And my point was, no one should be trapped in a linguistics situation where they can’t go out and get a job and they can’t go out and work.”

CATEGORIES: Immigration | Newt Gingrich |