Top 50 Undocumented Quotes

Inhumane treatment of the undocumented cannot be rewarded with repeated budget increases. It goes against our country’s most fundamental values and cannot continue. We must cut I.C.E.s budgets until these concerns are addressed.

Very few undocumented workers come here to be unemployed.

My father, who worked as a dishwasher, was especially anxious. He did not like being here undocumented.

There were many factors as to why I decided to come out as being undocumented. One of them is because I look the way that I look; I don’t look like the ‘stereotypical undocumented’ person.

I’ll never understand how destroying families through deportation benefits our society. How we treat the undocumented says a great deal about us as a people and whether or not we’ll continue to fulfill the fundamental American promise of equality and opportunity for all.

The undocumented should pay penalties for the laws they broke by coming here, but we should remember that the founding fathers were willing to break up an empire to achieve their dreams.

I learned at a very young age that my parents were undocumented.

Every single immigrant we have, undocumented or documented, is a future American. That’s just the truth of it.

Of all the questions I get asked as an undocumented immigrant in the United States, there are two – asked in various permutations via email, social media or in person – that chill me to the bone: ‘Why don’t you just make yourself legal?’ And: ‘Why don’t you get in the back of the line?’

Undocumented people get arrested all the time. I get arrested, and it’s front-page news. I feel guilt.

In order to create real, long-lasting reform, we must create a pathway to legal status for the millions of undocumented immigrants who have made lives for themselves and their families in the United States.

My grandfather was an undocumented immigrant. My great-grandmother, my bisabuela, carried him over the border in her arms.

By granting 4 million undocumented immigrants social security numbers that can potentially be misused through loopholes in our tax code and voting laws, President Obama is poisoning the waters of public perception and reinforcing negative stereotypes of Latinos and all immigrants.

As a society, we must not allow human rights abuses to go unnoticed and undocumented; it is a vital mission to fight ignorance of these tragic events.

Trump’s characterization of undocumented immigrants is, of course, absurd. Not only do the facts, well, trump his assertions, but his prejudiced views demonstrate a deep ignorance about Mexican immigrants in the United States.

In 2007, when I was governor of New York, I proposed that our state once again permit undocumented immigrants to obtain a driver’s license. To say the proposal lit a firestorm in the political arena is an understatement.

On the surface, I’ve created a good life. I’ve lived the American dream. But I am still an undocumented immigrant.

All across this country, undocumented immigrants are living in fear of seeing their families torn apart because of our broken immigration system. Many of those immigrants are children who were brought here at a young age through no fault of their own.

And let us not forget the Social Security system. Recent studies show that undocumented workers sustain the Social Security system with a subsidy as much as $7 billion a year. Let me repeat that: $7 billion a year.

In Tagalog, we call undocumented people ‘TNT,’ which means tago ng tago, which means ‘hiding and hiding.’ So that’s literally what undocumented means in Tagalog. And that kind of tells you how Filipinos think of this issue, and really any culture, right?

In states like California alone, the vast majority of undocumented immigrants contribute a great deal to society and the health of the economy.

The truth is, most undocumented immigrants come here for economic opportunity and the American Dream. They aren’t seeking tax credits or handouts.

For the undocumented immigrants, the big priority is just to get out from the shadows, be able to get a driver’s license, buy an airplane ticket and stop worrying about sudden deportation. But for the country as a whole, it’s crucial that everybody have a citizen’s stake in the nation’s welfare.

I support comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path to full and equal citizenship for undocumented immigrants who are playing by the rules, staying out of trouble and contributing to our economy.

Congress has an obligation to make controversial decisions on how to handle undocumented immigration. Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle have refused to take the tough votes on the issue for decades. Whether it’s been to take advantage of cheap labor or for political purposes, both sides are guilty.

Most analysts would agree that if all the undocumented immigrants in California were deported in one day, our state would experience a severe economic downturn. This does not even consider the many cultural and spiritual gifts these immigrants bring to our state and nation.

I remember the first article I ever wrote, and I saw my name in the paper, and I already knew I was undocumented, and I was thinking: ‘How can they now say I don’t exist?’

Here’s the thing about Texas – and the thing about the border. We all know undocumented immigrants. They sit in our churches, are friends with our children, and work all around us. They are just like us.

There used to be a tradition within the Hispanic community that, regardless of your political party, you would support undocumented immigrants. That ended with Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.

No one disagrees that undocumented criminals should be deported.

It is erroneous and profoundly irresponsible to suggest that up to three million undocumented immigrants living in America are dangerous criminals.

Allowing workers’ compensation for all injured workers is a better system than allowing people to be part of a black market of undocumented workers.

You know, I’m one of millions of undocumented people in this country who are living kind of under the shadows. And in many ways, coming out, it was my way of – at the end of the day, I think we have to tell the truth about this immigration system. And because of that, I had to tell the truth about myself.

I’m concerned about a lot of serious border issues. This book is about the border reality and the struggles of the undocumented worker.

A lot of our family was undocumented. My mom and dad were both super conservative. My dad had a green card; my mom was an Eisenhower Republican who did not approve of all the ‘illegal people.’

Even more troubling, not only are Asians largely unseen at the front line of the immigration debate, they are not using the resources available to help them manage their undocumented status.

I went through depression, which is something that we don’t often talk about when we look at undocumented communities and deported families.

The story of undocumented immigrants in this country is not just about undocumented immigrants. It’s about the country as a whole, and it’s about us being able to tell the truth about where we are with this issue because we haven’t been telling the truth about where we are with this issue.

Until he announced his immigration policy last week, Obama had the support of most Hispanic voters – but not the enthusiasm they had shown for him in 2008. That may be changing in part because of the decision not to deport young immigrants whose undocumented parents brought them here as children.

My dad was undocumented for a period of time, my mom was also undocumented for a period of time.

If immigration reform passes, it’ll be a big victory for sanity – nobody really believes it’s healthy for a country to have millions and millions of undocumented noncitizens living in the shadows. But it’ll also be a sign that the Republican Party has gotten tired of letting the Tea Party push it around.

When you’re undocumented, you’re supposed to keep your head down and be quiet and pay taxes, social security – even though people don’t know that we do those things – and not say anything.

When you’re the child of undocumented immigrants, you learn to keep your mouth shut.

If the undocumented have to work hard to attain citizenship, those of us who already are citizens should have to work hard to sustain it. We should all have to serve more, vote more, build more, and do more for our country.

I’m glad I’m a comedian. Otherwise, my life would just be a series of undocumented low points.

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.

The fact of the matter is, this country is not going to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants. What are we supposed to do with them? What are we supposed to do with these kids?

To me, politics is culture. I became a journalist, and later a filmmaker, to get to know my new country and my volatile place in it as a gay, undocumented Filipino-American.