When I started to get involved in the crime issue, people said, "it's a local issue." I said, "No, there are lots of ways the federal government can help." And the best way the federal government can help, and did in the Crime Bill, is to find programs that work around the country and help them spread.

Our borders are much too porous...We want to keep them open, but we also have to be much more careful. ...Right now, if you get on an airplane [to the U.S.] and claim asylum...when you arrive at Kennedy Airport in New York, they will say to you, 'OK, we'll give you a hearing on whether you deserve asylum. Show up in a year.' And two-thirds of the people never show up.

I don't think we should be putting first-time drug offenders in jail for five years. It's a waste of resources.

Giving up even an ounce of precious freedom is a very serious thing to do.

No one believed [the 1986 amnesty for illegal aliens] was tough enough on illegal immigration, and it didn't give enough flexibility on future legal immigration.

Crime can be a unifying argument - not an argument that people use as a code for us vs. them.

We're going to hammer guns on the anvil of relentless legislative strategy! We're going to beat guns into submission!