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There should be a path to earned legal status for those that are here. Not - not amnesty - earned legal status, which means you pay a fine and do many things over an extended period of time.

Amnesty is a big billboard, a flashing billboard, to the rest of the world that we don't really mean our immigration law.

If there's amnesty leading to citizenship, I'm going to vote against it again.

Amnesty is as good for those who give it as for those who receive it. It has the admirable quality of bestowing mercy on both sides.

I will support a path to citizenship if it does not fall within the definition of amnesty, and we've got to define what amnesty is in this country.

Amnesty is not the answer as it will only encourage more illegal immigrants to enter.

You know, when President Reagan, who was one of my idols, granted amnesty to about three million illegal immigrants it was based on the fact that the borders would be secured. That didn't happen. It didn't happen during the Bush administration.

I said it's impossible to have an amnesty without ID cards and a clean database, because you firstly don't have any incentives for people to actually come up front and register, and make themselves available, and secondly you have no means of tracking them.

Amnesty is a terrible policy, and it's terrible politics. It's a terrible policy because you are rewarding people for breaking the law.