If you change our immigration system to a skills-based system that respects and treats people for who they are as individuals as opposed to residents of a certain country or relatives of certain people in the United States, it's a system that is more in keeping with American values.
If you're a doctor, or a scientist, or a computer programmer, it shouldn't matter whether you come from Nigeria, or Norway, or any other country on this earth. Today though we have a system that rewards ties of blood, ties of kin, ties of clan. That's one of the most un-American immigration systems I can imagine.
If you have waves of immigration, you better figure out a way to turn those immigrants into red-blooded Americans, or else you end up splintering the society.
Hillary Clinton and I will do immigration enforcement and we'll vet refugees based on whether they're dangerous or not, we won't do it based on discriminating against you from the country you come from or the religion that you come from.
Hillary Clinton and I believe in comprehensive immigration reform. Donald Trump believes in deportation nation. You've got to pick your choice.
To say that there should be no immigration, yes, that is definitely contrary to the best values of America that were laid out in the Declaration of Independence and since.
America is a nation of immigrants. We have to have a functioning immigration system.
If America is a nation of laws as we proclaim, then our immigration laws are part of the package.
I've laid out a very, very detailed immigration plan on my website, tedcruz.org. It's 11 pages of existing federal law and in particular the question of what to do with people who are here now.
In fact, I think we're less safe. We get so distracted by all of the information, we're not spending enough time getting specific immigration - specific information on terrorists.
On his [Marco Rubio] Gang of Eight bill, he would have liberalized immigration, but he did not - and he steadfastly opposed any new border security requirements for refugees or students.
The thing is, is that every terrorist attack we've had since 9/11 has been legal immigration.
What I put forward was an amendment that would have temporarily halted immigration from high-risk terrorist countries, but would have started it up, but I wanted them to go through Global Entry, which is a program where we do background checks.
By statute, Congress has given the president the authority to suspend immigration - any class of immigration if he deems it in the national interest.
Marco Rubio said he was personally open over a long period of time to offering a path to citizenship for immigrants here illegally. Rubio's work on a comprehensive immigration bill is one of his biggest vulnerabilities with Republican primary voters.
He had 'deep concerns' with the pathway to citizenship for the nation's 11 million illegal immigrants under consideration by the group, calling it 'profoundly unfair' to legal immigrants.
Imagine a legal immigration system that welcomes and celebrates those who come to achieve the American dream.
I absolutely advocate for comprehensive immigration reform.
It could be construed that the reason I wouldn't wish to live in England is the immigration explosion. And that's not true at all.
Looking to Donald Trump`s immigration speech can he hang onto his base if he softens his stance on the issue that got him this far?
We are waiting for Donald Trump`s big immigration speech. There are lots of unanswered questions that remain about where exactly Trump stands on deportation forces, on what to do with the millions of immigrants who are here illegally now, and where he stands on the question of birthright citizenship.
So I think there's going to be a constituent backlash against this thing soon, as they see it moving in that direction...Whether they can pass something before the American public wakes up, I don't know.
By balancing the needs of families and employers, and by extending a safe haven to those fleeing persecution, our immigration policy serves its historic purpose. Freedom and opportunity is the cornerstone of American society, and immigrants continue to embody that freedom.
He [Rubio] is so knowledgeable about this issue ... I'm glad to see somebody with his background step forward and say it's important and we need to look at it.
Everybody will say that they're not opposed to immigration; they're opposed to illegal immigration. That's what I'm saying.
