To the left, immigration is anybody who gets in, anybody who wants to come gets in. And that's not what immigration is. That's illegal immigration. And that's what is opposed.
We've even lost the definition of immigration. "Immigration" today, if you listen to the left, equals anybody who wants to come into the country should be allowed. That's not what immigration is. That's illegal immigration, and we ought to all oppose it.
Do you realize what's been done to this whole definition of immigrants? The way Democrats and the left talk about immigration, immigration is anybody who wants to come to the country. And so if you're opposed to anybody coming in, then you're anti-immigrant.
We are all in favor of immigration that determines who gets in, the quantity of people who get in, whether they assimilate or not. Nobody's opposed to that. But immigration has been defined now as people flooding the country who are noncitizens. And that's called "immigration," according to the culture of the left.
Even if we didn't have a single person in the USA in violation of immigration laws, we'd still have to do immigration reform, because our legal immigration system is broken. It's not good for anybody.
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.
Everybody will say that they're not opposed to immigration; they're opposed to illegal immigration. That's what I'm saying.
As president, I will fight illegal immigration in order to preserve an appropriate level of legal immigration. At the same time, I believe our system of legal immigration needs to be re-examined. As part of this re-examination, I support a modest, temporary reduction in the annual rate of legal immigration.
Our immigration law sucks, and we need to redo the whole thing, comprehensive immigration reform. And what that's gonna be is anybody who wants to come and vote Democrat, we're gonna send 'em a limousine and bring 'em in.
On immigration policy, I believe we ought to call an immediate halt, stop illegal immigration and reduce legal immigration back to about 250,000 to 300,000, to more easily assimilate the Americans who've come here in the last 30 years.
We need to be discussing issues specifically to help the American people. And that would not include illegal aliens. These are people - I'm for immigration - legal immigration. I've been an immigration attorney. But people who have come to our country and violated laws, we should not be providing full health care services.
If we build the legal immigration system better, then they come here, and we'll have a whole lot less illegal immigration.
The American people don't trust the Federal Government to enforce our immigration laws, and we will not be able to do anything on immigration until we first prove to the American people that illegal immigration is under control. And we can do that. We know what it takes to do that.
Cracking down on illegal immigration was a key priority when I ran in 2002, 2006, and during my time as governor. Illegal immigration is a big problem, and it needs to be strongly addressed.
There is no quick fix for illegal immigration. But only when we achieve better control of our borders and better respect for our immigration laws can we give meaning to the discussion we need to have over reforming the numbers, categories, and procedures for legal immigration into the United States.
These are people - I'm for immigration - legal immigration. I've been an immigration attorney. But people who have come to our country and violated laws, we should not be providing full health care services.
We need to stop illegal immigration totally and reduce legal immigration and end the diversity visas policy pushed hard by President Clinton and allowing many persons from the Middle East to come to this country.