Presidents Day Quotes on Immigration

"There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. ...The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities." -- Pres. Theodore Roosevelt (Address to Knights of Columbus, Oct. 12, 1915)

"American institutions rest solely on good citizenship. They were created by people who had a background of self-government. New arrivals should be limited to our capacity to absorb them into the ranks of good citizenship. America must be kept American. For this purpose, it is necessary to continue a policy of restricted immigration." -- Pres. Calvin Coolidge (First Message to Congress, December 1923)

"But the simple truth is that we've lost control of our own borders, and no nation can do that and survive." -- Pres. Ronald Reagan (News conference, June 14, 1984 per Reagan Presidential Library)

"I want to remind people that family values do not stop at the Rio Grande River. People are coming to our country to do jobs that Americans won't do, to be able to feed their families." -- Pres. George W. Bush