John Kasich (Immigration)
Quotes
In 1986 Ronald Reagan basically said the people who were here, if they were law-abiding, could stay. But, what didn't happen is we didn't build the walls effectively and we didn't control the border. We need to control our border. But if people think that we are going to ship 11 million people who are law-abiding, who are in this country, and somehow pick them up at their house and ship them out to Mexico, think about the families. Think about the children. So, you know what the answer really is? If they have been law-abiding, they pay a penalty. They get to stay. We protect the wall. Anybody else comes over, they go back. But for the 11 million people, come on, folks. We all know you can't pick them up and ship them across, back across the border. It's a silly argument. It is not an adult argument. It makes no sense. (Source: Fox Business/WSJ First Tier debate , Nov 10, 2015)
Q: in 1993 you co-sponsored a bill in Congress that would take away "birth right citizenship": that is the citizenship automatically given to babies born in the US, even if they are born to undocumented immigrants. In 2010 you reiterated that, is that still your position? A: First of all, we ought to finish the fence. The 11 million who are here, we ought to find out who they are. If they've been law abiding over a period of time they ought to be legalized and ought to be able to stay here. If you have violated the law, we're going to ship you out. Once that fence gets built, we should make it clear, anybody who sneaks in, you're going back home. And in addition we need a guest worker program so that people can come in and work and be able to go back to support their family. Q: Would ending birthright citizenship be part of this larger immigration approach? A: I don't think we need to go there. (Source: CNN SOTU 2015 interview series: 2016 presidential hopefuls , Aug 9, 2015)
From On The Issues: John Kasich section: On Immigration
