Immigration Quotes

• Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Country, Patriotic, Years

  Theodore Roosevelt (1921). “Roosevelt in the Kansas City Star: War-time Editorials”

  127 Copy quote

  Show source

• Everywhere immigrants have enriched and strengthened the fabric of American life.

  John F. Kennedy

  Fabric, Migration, Migrants

  President John F. Kennedy (2016). “A Nation Of Immigrants”, p.11, Pickle Partners Publishing

  56 Copy quote

  Show source

• Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Xenophobia, Patriotic, Usa

  Remarks before Daughters of the American Revolution Convention, Washington, D.C., 21 Apr. 1938. Often paraphrased as Roosevelt's addressing the DAR as "my fellow immigrants."

  383 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  I had always hoped that this land might become a safe and agreeable asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong.

  George Washington

  Land, America, Atheism

  George Washington, Stephen Lucas (1999). “The Quotable George Washington: The Wisdom of an American Patriot”, p.5, Rowman & Littlefield

  227 Copy quote

  Show source

• The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations And Religions; whom we shall wellcome to a participation of all our rights and previleges...

  George Washington

  Rights, America, Privilege

  "The Writings of George Washington" edited by John C. Fitzpatrick, vol. 27, (p. 254), 1938.

  239 Copy quote

  Show source

• Immigration keeps this country young, it keeps it dynamic, we have entrepreneurs and strivers who come here and are willing to take risks, and that's part of the reason why America historically has been successful.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Successful, America

  Source: time.com

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Men, Firsts, Facts

  Theodore Roosevelt (1954). “Letters of Theodore Roosevelt: The days of Armageddon, 1900-1914”

  59 Copy quote

  Show source

• You never really saw the racism in Europe in the past because it was so homogeneous. When everyone is blonde and blue-eyed, you don't see racism. But as soon as there was the beginnings of immigration, it just came out very dramatically.

  Noam Chomsky

  Past, Blue, Europe

  Source: www.commonwealmagazine.org

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• America was indebted to immigration for her settlement and prosperity. That part of America which had encouraged them most had advanced most rapidly in population, agriculture and the arts.

  James Madison

  Art, Agriculture, America

  37 Copy quote

• A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in.. And how many want out.

  Tony Blair

  Country, Simple, Looks

  27 Copy quote

• There seems to be a lot of momentum behind immigration reform.

  Justin Amash

  Reform, Momentum, Behinds

  3 Copy quote

• The land flourished because it was fed from so many sources--because it was nourished by so many cultures and traditions and peoples.

  Lyndon B. Johnson

  Land, Culture, Tradition

  Johnson, Lyndon B. (1967). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966”, p.1039, Best Books on

  33 Copy quote

  Show source

• The immigration must be limited, that is, first and foremost the foreign cultural one.

  Carl I. Hagen

  Firsts

  Interview in Aftenposten, November 13, 2005.

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity, until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Opportunity, Journey

  Second Presidential Inaugural Address, delivered 21 January 2013, Washington, D.C.

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• [Let] the poor the needy and oppressed of the Earth, and those who want Land, resort to the fertile lands of our western country, the second land of Promise, and there dwell in peace, fulfilling the first and great commandment.

  George Washington

  Country, Land, Promise

  Jay A. Parry, Andrew M. Allison, George Washington (1991). “The real George Washington”, Natl Center for Constitutional

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Once I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America. Then I discovered that the immigrants were American history.

  Oscar Handlin

  Writing, Discovery, Usa

  Oscar Handlin (2002). “The Uprooted: The Epic Story of the Great Migrations That Made the American People”, p.3, University of Pennsylvania Press

  48 Copy quote

  Show source

• Ending illegal immigration only strengthens legal immigration.

  Mitt Romney

  Illegal, Illegal Immigration, Legal Immigration

  3 Copy quote

• People come here penniless but not cultureless. They bring us gifts. We can synthesize the best of our traditions with the best of theirs. We can teach and learn from each other to produce a better America.

  Mary Pipher

  America, People, Tradition

  Mary Pipher (2003). “The Middle of Everywhere”, p.371, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  31 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are people with a lot of prejudice, a lot of fear of the unknown. They think that immigration is a danger, when really it is a solution. This is an interesting issue, because it will be a central question of our time.

  Mario Vargas Llosa

  Thinking, Issues, People

  "Interview With Mario Vargas Llosa". Interview with Katharyn Rodemann, www.texasmonthly.com. November 2002.

  69 Copy quote

  Show source

• Immigration is the sincerest form of flattery.

  Jack Paar

  Definitions, Flattery, Form

  29 Copy quote

• The simple fact is that we must not-and we will not-surrender our borders to those who wish to exploit our history of compassion and justice.

  William J. Clinton

  Simple, Compassion, Justice

  Clinton, William J. (1994). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 1993”, p.1194, Best Books on

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• For our immigration policy to make sense, it is necessary to make distinctions between those who obey the law, and those who violate it.

  Barbara Jordan

  Law, Distinction, Policy

  64 Copy quote

• ...for the system to be credible, people actually have to be deported at the end of the process.

  Barbara Jordan

  People, Ends, Process

  5 Copy quote

• What immigration really does is redistribute wealth away from workers toward employers.

  George J. Borjas

  Doe, Wealth, Employers

  8 Copy quote

• I do feel immigration will probably be dealt with as long as [the solution] doesn't provide amnesty ... Five years ago, all hell broke loose ... This year, I thought phones would ring off the hook again. They really haven't. I think everybody realizes we have a problem.

  Johnny Isakson

  Thinking, Phones, Years

  4 Copy quote