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I fully recognize we need to improve the path to citizenship, just as we need to value the hard work of folks who become American citizens legally.

Our immigration system is a broken system that needs to be fixed. We need reform that provides hardworking people of good character with a real path towards citizenship.

But last year there were 540,000 people, roughly, detained coming across the border illegally. Forty-five thousand of them came from countries other than Mexico, demonstrating the fact that Mexico itself now is a pathway into the United States for people all around the world, and we don't know what their intentions are.

Millions of us, myself included, go back generations in this country, with ancestors who put in the painstaking work to become citizens. So we don't like the notion that anyone might get a free pass to American citizenship.

It's definitely going to be harder than it sounds to acquire millions of users in the U.S. It's going to be a lot of work, and you can't make light of that.

You look at the Pew Hispanic Center study on the number of illegal aliens in America and the number of jobs they have, that's 7.4 million, illegal aliens in America. A quick way to create jobs in America is to remove those illegal aliens from our community. That frees up 7.4 million jobs that American can seek.

The American people depend on these federal employees to process, investigate, and adjudicate applications for immigration rights and benefits in a timely and thorough manner.

People are frustrated. This is the most generous country in the world when it comes to immigration. There are a million people a year who legally immigrate to the United States, and people feel like we're being taken advantage of. We feel like despite our generosity, we're being taken advantage of.

There are 12 million illegal immigrants in this country - drawing welfare benefits, sending their children to public schools, and pushing down wages for American workers - but the problem extends well beyond amnesty and open borders.

The desire from those abroad to join our ranks is overwhelming. Tens of millions have applied for the limited amount of diversity visas available every year, illustrating the demand and need to maintain this vital path to American citizenship.