What the Candidates Said About Immigration

New York Times

September 17, 2015

What the Candidates Said About Immigration 

Some of the Republican presidential candidates participating in Wednesday night’s three-hour debate spoke about immigration – an issue Jake Tapper, a moderator, called the most combustible in the campaign. Here are their remarks, drawn from a transcript provided by CNN. Comments have been condensed and edited.

Donald J. Trump

First of all, I want to build a wall, a wall that works. Second of all, we have a lot of really bad dudes in this country from outside.They go, if I get elected, first day they're gone. Gangs all over the place. Chicago, Baltimore, no matter where you look.

We have a country based on laws. I will make sure that those laws are adhered to. These are illegal immigrants. They're going to go out, and they'll come back if they deserve to come back. If they've had a bad record, if they've been arrested, if they've been in jail, they're never coming back.

A woman gets pregnant. She's nine months, she walks across the border, she has the baby in the United States, and we take care of the baby for 85 years. I don't think so. We're the only ones dumb enough, stupid enough to have it.

Chris Christie

What we need to do is to secure our border, and we need to do it with more than just a wall. We need to use electronics, we need to use drones, we need to use F.B.I., D.E.A., and A.T.F., and yes, we need to take the fingerprint of every person who comes into this country on a visa, and when they overstay their visa, we need to tap them on the shoulder, and say, "You have overstayed your welcome, you're taking advantage of the American people. It's time for you to go." If we had that kind of system in place, we wouldn't have the 11 million people we have now.

Ben Carson

What we need to do is look at something that actually works. Yuma County, Arizona. They stop 97 percent of the illegal immigrants through there. They put in a double fence with a road so that there was quick access by the enforcement people. If we don't seal the border, the rest of this stuff clearly doesn't matter. It's kind of ridiculous all the other things we talk about. We have the ability to do it. We don't have the will to do it.

My plan is not amnesty for a number of reasons. Number one, you know, I've talked to farmers, and they said they cannot hire Americans to do the kind of job that I'm talking about. And the second reason is because the individuals who register as guest workers, they don't get to vote, they are not American citizens, and they don't get the rights and privileges of American citizens.

Jeb Bush

We're at a crossroads right now. Are we going to take the Reagan approach, the hopeful optimistic approach, the approach that says that, you come to our country legally, you pursue your dreams with a vengeance, you create opportunities for all of us? Or the Donald Trump approach? The approach that says that everything is bad, that everything is coming to an end.

It does require securing the border. No one disagrees with that. But to build a wall, and to deport people -- half a million a month -- would cost hundreds of billions of dollars. It would destroy community life, it would tear families apart. And it would send a signal to the rest of the world that the United States values that are so important for our long-term success no longer matter in this country.

Marco Rubio

First, we must secure our border, the physical border, with a wall, absolutely. But we also need to have an entry-exit tracking system. Forty percent of the people who come here illegally come legally, and then they overstay the visa. We also need a mandatory e-verify system.

After we've done that, step two would be to modernize our legal immigration system so you come to America on the basis of what you can contribute economically, not whether or not simply you have a relative living here.

And after we've done those two things, I believe the American people will be very reasonable and responsible about what you do with someone who's been here and isn't a criminal. If you're a criminal, obviously, you will not be able to stay.

Ted Cruz

The natural next question that primary voters are asking, after we focus on illegal immigration is, O.K., what are the records of the various candidates? And this is an issue on which there are stark differences.

I am the only candidate on this stage who has never supported amnesty and, in fact, who helped lead the fight to stop a massive amnesty plan.

You know, folks here have talked about, how do you secure the borders? Well, I've been leading the fight in the Senate to triple the Border Patrol, to put in place fencings and walls, to put in place a strong biometric exit/entry system.

Carly Fiorina

Why have Democrats not solved this problem? President Obama campaigned in 2007 and 2008 on solving the immigration problem. He entered Washington with majorities in the House and the Senate. He could have chosen to do anything to solve this problem. Instead, he chose to do nothing. Why? because the Democrats don't want this issue solved.

The truth is, you can't just wave your hands and say "the 14th Amendment is gonna go away." It will take an extremely arduous vote in Congress, followed by two-thirds of the states, and if that doesn't work to amend the Constitution, then it is a long, arduous process in court.

And meanwhile, what will continue to go on is what has gone on for 25 years. San Francisco has been a sanctuary city since 1989. There are 300 of them. The border remains insecure. The legal immigration system remains broken.

Rand Paul

I hate to say it, but Donald Trump has a bit of a point here. The case that was decided around 1900 was, people had a green card, were here legally, and they said that their children were citizens. There's never been a direct Supreme Court case on people who were here illegally, whether or not their kids are citizens. So it hasn't really been completely adjudicated. The 14th Amendment says that "those who are here and under the jurisdiction." The original author of the 14th Amendment said on the Senate floor that this was applying to slaves, and did not specifically apply to others.

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