National leaders opinions on Immigration Reform

President Obama

“And in the coming weeks and months, I am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges we can only solve together. Reducing our deficit.
Reforming our tax code.
Fixing our immigration system.”

Source: Victory Speech Nov 6

Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

“[The issue of immigration] has been around far too long… A comprehensive approach is long overdue, and I’m confident that the president, myself, others can find the common ground to take care of this issue once and for all.”

Source: ABC news Interview Nov 8

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)

“The only thing we need to get immigration reform done [is] a few Republican votes. . . It’s high on my list, and we’re going to have a few votes on it.”

Source: Press Conference Nov 7

Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY)

“This is a breakthrough to have the Speaker endorse the urgency of comprehensive immigration reform. Democrats in the Senate look forward to working with him to come up with a bipartisan solution.”

Statement released Nov 8

“I think [Republicans] are going to want to do it now. . . [It] is at the top of the list because the nation demands it and needs it. And again, I think in the exit polls, two thirds of Americans basically agreed with the concept of real immigration reform.”

Source: Huffington Post

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)

“The conservative movement should have particular appeal to people in minority and immigrant communities who are trying to make it, and Republicans need to work harder than ever to communicate our beliefs to them. I look forward to working on these goals with my new and returning colleagues in Congress and hope the President will get behind our efforts.”

Source: Marco Rubio Facebook page Nov 7

Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS)

“It’s clear to me, if Republicans are going to have the opportunity to be in the majority, we clearly have to determine how we deal with minority and Latino voters. In some fashion, the way we have dealt with immigration gives us a black eye. And we need to figure out how to talk about issues and pursue policies that matter to Latino, Hispanic voters.”

Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID)

“There’s a bipartisan majority that realizes we have a problem on immigration. We have an immigration system that’s broken. And we can figure out how to do it by working together. And we can do it without amnesty, without a pathway to citizenship. We can solve guest worker program that we have in the United States. We can protect the border, and it behooves Republicans right now after the elections to figure out how to work on this issue.”

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA)

“It’s about border security. It’s about fixing the existing programs we have in place for the different types of employee visas. You need to fix those or completely revamp them. … You have to deal with children brought here under no fault of their own. You have to deal with people here who are here just to find work. You have to have a process that everyone goes through. But it all starts with the president. The president has to give confidence to the American people that the border is secured.”

Rep. Cory Gardner (R-CO)

“I don’t know what the policy would look like, but we can’t be afraid of the conversation”

Sources: Politico Nov 8

Newt Gingrich

“The Republican Party has to be open to and listening to people who are going to be a major part of our future and unless we do that, we’re going to be a minority party… Now, I don’t think that means you automatically embrace every new idea that President Obama sends up to Capitol Hill, but I think you do have to have an attitude towards the Latino population — not necessarily towards the president — that is much, much more inclusive than it has been in the past.”

Source: CBS News Interview Nov 7

Haley Barbour

(Former Governor of MS; Former Chairman of Republican National Committee)

“At the end of the day good policy is good politics. And good policy on immigration in the United States is, we are in a global battle for capital and labor, and we need to have what is good economic policy for America on immigration because we do need labor. We not only need Ph.Ds in science and technology, we need skilled workers and we need unskilled workers. And we need to have an immigration policy that is good economic policy, and then — and then the politics will take care of itself.”

Source: NBC Today Interview Nov 7

“The idea of self-deportation is not a good place to try to attract votes. It’s also not a good policy”. . . What we need to do is be for good economic policy — and that should be the source of our effort for immigration reform.”

Source: Newsmax Nov 8

Al Cardenas

(Chairman of the American Conservative Union; Former chairman of FL’s Republican
Party)

“Immigration has become a wedge issue and a litmus test, a litmus test of respect and caring. So we need to get immigration reform done to finally get rid of that wedge issue that’s been afflicting our party for 10 or 15 years.”

Bloomberg News Nov 8

George Will

“Republicans can take some solace from the popular vote. But unless they respond to accelerating demographic changes — and Obama, by pressing immigration reform, can give Republicans a reef on which they can wreck themselves — the 58th presidential election may be like the 57th, only more so.”

Source: Washington Post Nov 7

Grover Norquist

(President of Americans for Tax Reform)

“Republicans should approach it as the party of Reagan and Bush — the party that has historically been pro-immigration… We’re up against a president who introduced nothing legislatively. The idea that Obama and Democrats are good on this is all optics and no reality.”

Source: NBC News Nov 9

Charles Krauthammer

“It requires but a single policy change: Border fence plus amnesty. Yes, amnesty. Use the word.

Shock and awe – full legal normalization (just short of citizenship) in return for full border enforcement.

I’ve always been of the “enforcement first” school, with the subsequent promise of legalization. I still think it’s the better policy. But many Hispanics fear that there will be nothing beyond enforcement. So, promise amnesty right up front. Secure the border with guaranteed legalization to follow on the day the four border-state governors affirm that illegal immigration has slowed to a trickle.”

Source: Washington Post Nov 8

Sean Hannity

“We’ve gotta get rid of the immigration issue altogether. It’s simple for me to fix it. I think you control the border first, you create a pathway for those people that are here, you don’t say you gotta home. And that is a position that I’ve evolved on. Because you know what–it just–it’s gotta be resolved. The majority of people here–if some people have criminal records you can send’ em home–but if people are here, law-abiding, participating, four years, their kids are born here… first secure the border, pathway to citizenship… then it’s done. But you can’t let the problem continue. It’s gotta stop.”

Source: Sean Hannity Show Nov 7

Mark McKinnon

(GOP Media advisor; Former Bush aide)

“The best thing about Republicans losing is that it will likely force them to cut an immigration deal.”

Source: NBC News Nov 9

Mike Murphy

(GOP Strategist)

“We have a Latino problem that just cost us a national election. We’re going to have to have a very adult conversation that might turn into an intraparty fistfight about how we become electable again.”

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