Introduction:
Welcome to our collection of powerful quotes about immigrants. Immigration has been a cornerstone of human history, shaping cultures, economies, and societies around the globe. From the earliest migrations of our ancestors to the complex patterns of modern-day movement, the stories of immigrants resonate deeply with the human experience.
These quotes capture the essence of the immigrant journey its challenges, triumphs, and the invaluable contributions immigrants make to their adopted homelands. Whether seeking refuge from conflict, pursuing better opportunities, or simply seeking a new beginning, immigrants enrich the tapestry of our world with their diversity, resilience, and boundless spirit. Below, you’ll find a selection of poignant quotes that celebrate the courage and resilience of immigrants from all walks of life. Feel free to use these quotes to inspire, educate, or ignite conversations about the importance of immigration in our interconnected world.
Donald Trump is a champion for legal immigrants. Michael Cohen
I can understand why immigrants would want to bring the rest of their extended family here, including older ones who will benefit from our health-care system. Maxime Bernier
Obama wants to raise the issue of immigration reform so that he can demonize Republicans as anti-Hispanic. That’s why Obama ignores the broad support for an immigration plan that would provide border security once and for all and then deal with the illegal immigrants who live here. Ben Shapiro
I love immigrants. Legal, illegal – they’re not to be despised. Mario Cuomo
First of all, we haven’t always welcomed immigrants. Samuel P. Huntington
I learned Spanish as my second language from middle school through high school. I grew up volunteering at homeless shelters and tutoring kids of Latin immigrants in Atlanta, who didn’t speak any English. That prepared me for when I traveled. Eric Nam
My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too. Barack Obama
When I eventually get my hands on Covington, its more than just a fight: it symbolizes so many other things. It symbolizes the attitude toward immigrants in this country and around the world. Kamaru Usman
Therefore, if we are a Nation of laws and a Nation of immigrants, immigration should occur within a legal framework, not through the machinations of illegal schemes and scams that threaten our national security. J. D. Hayworth
We’re all born into whatever citizenship, circumstances, or class we happen to be born into. Immigrants and so many people in the working class work so hard every day for nickels and pennies and scraps to just barely get by and then realize that this precious life has been completely drained out of us. Kali Uchis
I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to restore dignity and humanity to our immigration policies and to respectfully uphold America’s legacy as a nation of immigrants. Alex Padilla
The U.S. is a complex country. It has a high predominance of immigrants who have been eminently successful. Azim Premji
America is this incredible mosaic of immigrants, so people really want to be anchored in some kind of culture as well as the one they are living in. Dylan Moran
I don’t think that the black market’s a new thing. It’s always been a part of history, and it’s been one of the ways that immigrants and disenfranchised people move into the middle class. Lela Loren
The library helps lower- and middle-income people – immigrants – get their shot at the American dream. Stephen A. Schwarzman
My dad’s from that generation like a lot of immigrants where he feels like if you come to this country, you pay this thing like the American dream tax: like you’re going to endure some racism, and if it doesn’t cost you your life, well hey, you lucked out. Pay it; there you go, Uncle Sam. I was born here, so I actually had the audacity of equality. Hasan Minhaj
We are a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws. Alejandro Mayorkas
My second year of teaching I was chosen to be a crisis intervention teacher. Our school was a kindergarten through fourth grade school with 1,500 kids, largely recent immigrants from Africa and South America. And it was in one of the poorest zip codes in the country. The classes were too big, the school was underfunded. Jamaal Bowman
I always heard that immigrants had a really hard life when they came to America. Sofia Vergara
If we don’t stop immigration – this torrent of immigrants coming in – we’re not going to be America anymore because most of the people coming in have no experience with limited government. They don’t know what that is. Phyllis Schlafly
The Gun Control Act of 1968 was an attempt to impose order. It set up the Federal Firearms License (FFL) system; gun stores would have to become licensed, and they would have to follow certain rules. Felons, illegal immigrants, and crazy people would be prohibited from buying guns. Jeanne Marie Laskas
65 immigration acts went through right at the time of the Great Society program. So pre-1970 immigrants – and that’s basically when it kicked in – pre-1970 immigrants, 30% went home. They couldn’t make it. Ann Coulter
Bangladeshi illegal immigrants are a threat to the security of this nation. Amit Shah
I have written about the dispossessed, immigrants, the condition of women who do not enjoy the same legal rights as men, the Palestinians who are deprived of their land and condemned to exile. Tahar Ben Jelloun
There are many, many different kinds of intersectional exclusions – not just black women but other women of color. Not just people of color, but people with disabilities. Immigrants. LGBTQ people. Indigenous people. Kimberle Williams Crenshaw
This is a land of immigrants, and most come here for opportunity, a second chance. Ilhan Omar
I always understood my ancestry, like that of so many others in the Gulf Coast, to be a tangle of African slaves, free men of color, French and Spanish immigrants, British colonists, Native Americans – but in what proportion, and what might that proportion tell me about who I thought I was? Jesmyn Ward
We are a nation of immigrants. Mikie Sherrill
We must enforce the laws we have on the books, secure our borders, and deny special benefits to illegal immigrants such as in-state tuition rates. This approach is best for American citizens and is fair to those who have taken the time and effort to go through the legal immigration process. Ron DeSantis
The current diversity visa program does a disservice to our immigration policy and to those immigrants who have moved through the more traditional process that allows them to lawfully reside in this country. William L. Jenkins
It is simply a fact that the birth rate of our illegal immigrants exceeds that of our legal residents. John Linder
America is the only developed nation that has a 2,000-mile border with a developing nation, and the government’s refusal to control that border is why there are an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona and why the nation, sensibly insisting on first things first, resists ‘comprehensive’ immigration reform. George Will
I am the daughter of Nigerian immigrants. My mother is a survivor of both polio and of the Igbo genocide during her country’s civil war in the late 1960s. Uzo Aduba
I am the proud daughter of Indian immigrants who reminded my brothers, my sister and me every single day how blessed we were to live in this country. They loved the fact that only in America, we could be as successful as we wanted to be, and nothing would stand in our way. Nikki Haley
We are committed to ensuring that immigration is not further criminalized and that all immigrants are treated with dignity and provided with a path to citizenship. Cori Bush
We fear the arrival of immigrants that we have drawn here with the wealth we stole from them. For much of the rest of the world we must be the focus of bitter amusement, characters in a satire we don’t understand. It is British people that don’t learn languages, or British history. Britain is the true scrounger, the true criminal. Frankie Boyle
There’s no neutral language about travel. Either travel is described in ways that make it sound kind of shallow or just glossy or silly or a way for rich people to spend their time; or else travel is often described in quite derogatory ways, you know, like immigrants swarming across borders, for instance. Emma Donoghue
Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere. Jean Rhys
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. Sam Graves
The reality is for 50 years in this country, federal law has required people that are illegal – or that are immigrants – or that are legal immigrants to this country to carry documentation to that effect. And that has been the law for 50 years. Trent Franks
I understood from a very young age that school was important and that my parents were making great sacrifices for me. Every morning I saw my father get up and go to a job that he didn’t really like. They came to France for the same reasons all immigrants move to another country – so their kids could have a better way of life. Omar Sy
Allowing illegal immigrants that are gang members and criminals with COVID to enter the U.S. and receive citizenship is a slap in the face to the American people and the rule of law. Lauren Boebert
We should be the pro-legal immigration party. A party that has a positive platform and agenda on how we can create a legal immigration system that works for immigrants and works for America. Marco Rubio
I’m for the DREAM Act. It makes so much sense. Following the implementation of the DREAM Act, we’ll have a case study we can point to where we can say that we provided a path to citizenship or legal involvement in the community for these young immigrants, and the sky didn’t fall. Beto O’Rourke
Life is now a war zone, and as such, the number of people considered disposable has grown exponentially, and this includes low income whites, poor minorities, immigrants, the unemployed, the homeless, and a range of people who are viewed as a liability to capital and its endless predatory quest for power and profits. Henry Giroux
Doing difficult things like passing marriage equality, passing the Dream Act, doing common sense things that allow new American immigrants to fully participate, pay their taxes, play by the rules and take care of their families. That’s the inclusive America that I believe all of us want to move to. Martin O’Malley
If we want to set and enforce a limit on immigration, we have to be willing to say no to would-be immigrants who look a lot like our own ancestors, not because there’s anything wrong with them, but simply because admitting them would exceed our legal limit. Jan C. Ting
There is an insuperable problem about introducing immigrants to British values. There are no British values. Nor are there any Serbian or Peruvian values. No nation has a monopoly on fairness and decency, justice and humanity. Terry Eagleton
As the proud son of immigrants from Mexico, I’m honored to be the first Latino to serve as Chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety. Alex Padilla
We’re being told that America is a zero sum game – that the dreams of immigrants come at the expense of those native born and that the religious freedom of some threatens the security of others. But we know this is a lie. Reshma Saujani
I hear from non-Afghan immigrants – Africans, Indians, Pakistanis, Arabs in France – all the time. These people have had to redefine their lives, which is what my family went through when we came to the U.S. in 1980. Khaled Hosseini
All of us take offense to anyone who reaps the rewards of living in America without taking on the responsibilities of living in America. And undocumented immigrants who desperately want to embrace those responsibilities see little option but to remain in the shadows, or risk their families being torn apart. Barack Obama
We are a nation of immigrants. We are the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the ones who wanted a better life, the driven ones, the ones who woke up at night hearing that voice telling them that life in that place called America could be better. Mitt Romney
Our country is a nation of immigrants, who, for centuries, have come here, fleeing persecution, bringing their dreams, their fears, and their hopes for a better life. Jacky Rosen
Mr. Speaker, our Nation depends on immigrants’ labor, and I hope we can create an immigration system as dependable as they are. Luis Gutierrez
I don’t know what it’s like in the U.S. but immigrants in the U.K. do the jobs the citizens won’t do. Eddie Izzard
My parents were South Korean immigrants who came to America in the early 80s for the hope of a better life for their children. Jonny Kim
We are a country where people of all backgrounds, all nations of origin, all languages, all religions, all races, can make a home. America was built by immigrants. Hillary Clinton
Our Nation’s immigration laws are disrespected both by those who cross our borders illegally and by the businesses that hire those illegal immigrants. Steve Israel
Day in and day out, immigrants have put their own health and their families’ health on the line to keep America running. Alex Padilla
Black people in America, people from the struggle, immigrants, it’s no generational wealth that we are attached to, so we are tasked to create – in one generation – closing the gap. That’s why we so Doomsday about getting to the check: ’cause it’s life or death for real. Nipsey Hussle
If somebody takes masses of non-registered immigrants from the Middle East into a country, this also means importing terrorism, criminalism, anti-Semitism, and homophobia. Viktor Orban
If you allow immigrants into your country, then you’re responsible for them. Pim Fortuyn
If you want to stop illegal immigration, you have to make it so that – so that the people that hire the illegal immigrants will not be in a position to hire them. Jesse Ventura
Many immigrants do not talk about what they endured back home. They were fleeing that world, and when they left they didn’t want to talk about it because there had been pain and heartbreak under the caste system of the South. They didn’t want to burden their children with what they had endured. Isabel Wilkerson
I think we’re very uptight in America. You have to remember that we’re descended from Puritans. Whether or not the country is now composed of immigrants, our culture as American really begins with the landing of the Pilgrims and a puritanical view of things. Tom Ford
For immigrant women, the very act of immigration is about opportunity, equality, and freedom. Women immigrants come to America to care for their families, escape gender-based violence, or express their sexual identity. Pramila Jayapal
President Bush said that if illegal immigrants want citizenship, they’d have to do three things: pay taxes, hold meaningful jobs, and learn English. Bush doesn’t meet those qualifications. P. J. O’Rourke
I support DACA, which prevents the deportation of undocumented immigrants who came to America as children. Congress should cement this program into law by supporting the DREAM Act, which has overwhelming bipartisan support. Jaime Harrison
Both my parents are English and came out to Australia in 1967. I was born the following year. My parents, and immigrants like them, were known as ‘?10 poms.’ Back then, the Australian government was trying to get educated British people and Canadians – to be honest, educated white people – to come and live in Australia. Hugh Jackman
We are indeed a nation of immigrants. People who choose to come to America have always been one of our greatest sources of national vitality. They keep our economy strong and our communities dynamic. They are some of our greatest patriots. Tom Perez
Legal immigrants have been an engine of economic growth, innovation, and entrepreneurship on this continent for longer than we have been a nation. Luis Gutierrez
Immigrants and Native Americans have made our country what it is today, and if we’ve learned anything through these hundreds of years – it should be that we can accomplish more when we work together. Deb Haaland
When we feel helpless later in life, fear makes us scapegoat others. Instead of fixing the problems, we say, ‘Oh, it’s all their fault – those women or immigrants are infesting our country.’ Rather than useful protest or constructive solutions, we get angry at these handy targets. Martha Nussbaum
The White House looked into a plan that would allow illegal immigrants to stay in the United States. The plan called for a million Mexicans to marry a million of our ugliest citizens. Dennis Miller
I don’t like it when I see a racist comedian go up and say, ‘What are we gonna do about all these immigrants?’ and they get a round the applause. I think, ‘Well that’s not a joke. That’s just your biased opinion.’ Ricky Gervais
We are a city that is a sanctuary city. We have immigrants from all over the world who call Chicago their home. They’ll continue to do that, and we’re going to continue to make sure that this is truly a welcoming community for those immigrants and we want them to come to the city of Chicago. Lori Lightfoot
I would give illegal immigrants already here a three-month grace period to apply for a temporary worker’s visa. If they failed to apply within that time frame, they would be considered fugitives, and they would be found and deported. Chuck Norris
Immigrants use the library often. A lot of them don’t have access to books and Internet at home. They seem so disconnected to the city. Rabindranath Maharaj
Immigrants aren’t the reason wages haven’t gone up enough; those decisions are made in the boardrooms that too often put quarterly earnings over long-term returns. Barack Obama
The U.S. tries to provide immigrants who grow up here with a world-class education and imbue them with the can-do attitude that has long defined American innovation. Gary Locke
The Democratic Party is the party that opened its arms. We opened them to every nationality, every creed. We opened them to the immigrants. The Democratic Party is the party of the people. Richard J. Daley
I don’t think Italy is a racist country, because there are so many immigrants. Gennaro Gattuso
Once we lose our border protection, the road to citizenship, voting and welfare benefits for a flood of new immigrants will be all but paved. Charlie Kirk
Do all children have some inherent right to live in America if they have done nothing wrong? If not, then why should the children of illegal immigrants have such a right? Thomas Sowell
Israel’s capital will never again be a divided city, a city with a wall at its center, a city in which two flags fly. This city, will, in its entirety, absorb immigrants, welcome pilgrims and be the eternal capital of Israel forever. Yitzhak Shamir
Vice President Joe Biden believes that illegal immigrants are citizens. Obama believes that some Americans who join Islamist groups are citizens, while others are not. Who is an American? Whomever the executive branch deems an American. Who isn’t? It depends on whether Obama ate his Wheaties or not. Ben Shapiro
I think the narrative of people being caught between two cultures as immigrants is very harmful. It’s exclusionary. It essentially tries to argue that some Americans are more real than others. Ken Liu
I was always kind of a school person – my parents were teachers, and my grandparents were immigrants, so their big thing was, ‘Go to college, go to college, go to college.’ Mayim Bialik
There’s a big difference between France and the U.S. In the U.S., immigrants must work to live. In France, they’re taken care of by public finances. In France, there are millions of unemployed people already. We cannot house them, give them health care, education… finance people who keep coming and coming. Marine Le Pen
The Immigration Act of 1924 closed our doors to virtually all non-European immigrants – a great wrong that was not rectified for decades. Max Boot
I’m sick of seeing the immigrants in the hotels and the Italians who sleep in cars. This is the racist country. Matteo Salvini
The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people. Noam Chomsky
It always trips me out that America, the most powerful and magnificent nation in the history of the world, whose might was built by immigrants from all over the world, only speaks one language. Cheech Marin
Amnesty is not the answer as it will only encourage more illegal immigrants to enter. Timothy Murphy
When I first came here, Italian food wasn’t anything I recognized. I didn’t know what Italian American food was; we never ate it at home. It was the food of immigrants who came here and made use of the ingredients they had. Lidia Bastianich
The vast majority of immigrants – regardless of the conditions of war and poverty that may wrack their home countries – come and contribute to their new home country: building our roads, caring for our homes, children, and elders, and serving as doctors, lawyers, employers, and innovators. Pramila Jayapal
I’m the only one who is saying, ‘Let’s take fewer immigrants.’ We want people to integrate, we don’t want ghettos in Canada. Maxime Bernier
It almost seems that nobody can hate America as much as native Americans. America needs new immigrants to love and cherish it. Eric Hoffer
Before the Great Chicago Fire, no one took notice of Patrick and Catherine O’Leary, two Irish immigrants who lived with their five children on the city’s West Side. Karen Abbott