CNN "State of the Union" interviews during 2015: on Immigration

John Kasich: Focus of immigration should be to keep families together

KASICH: Look, I have to be clear about it. I'm just trying to say that, in the course of a presidential campaign, I'm glad that I don't move so fast that I ignore people. And my views on our Hispanic friends across this country have been very positive. They are impactful in so many different ways. My position on immigration has been on that is intended to keep families together and to give them a good place in American society. I have great respect for [Latinos]. I think they are an important fabric of America.

Ben Carson: Use drones to destroy smuggler hide-outs on Mexican border

A: I said that the drones are excellent for surveillance. In no way did I suggest that drones be used to kill people. We have a huge security risk [at the border], and it seems like we have not only the cartels to deal with, the drug smugglers, the people smugglers, but we have the federal government, which is not being helpful. Over the last couple of years, they have released 67,000 people.

Q: But you said that you were considering drone strikes on cartels down there at the border.

A: No, that's a lie. What I said is, it's possible that a drone could be used to destroy the caves that are utilized to hide people.

Q: Who would be hidden in these caves?

A: The scouts. There are caves that they utilize. Those caves can be eliminated. I am not talking about killing people. We have excellent military people and military strategists; we need to get them involved.

John Kasich: 1993: end birthright citizenship; 2015: not part of approach

A: First of all, we ought to finish the fence. The 11 million who are here, we ought to find out who they are. If they've been law abiding over a period of time they ought to be legalized and ought to be able to stay here. If you have violated the law, we're going to ship you out. Once that fence gets built, we should make it clear, anybody who sneaks in, you're going back home. And in addition we need a guest worker program so that people can come in and work and be able to go back to support their family.

Q: Would ending birthright citizenship be part of this larger immigration approach?

A: I don't think we need to go there.

Chris Christie: E-verify instead of building a physical wall

A: There are not enough law enforcement officers, local, state and federal combined to forcibly deport 11 to 12 million people. This is like building a 2,000-mile wall across the border that Mexico is going to pay for. It sounds really good but the question is how? I think the way to do this is E-Verify. If folks new they weren't going to get jobs, they would not come.

Q: And what would you do with the 11 million who are here?

A: We're going to have to come up with a solution that's going to involve using E-Verify as well.

Donald Trump: Building a wall will save money because it stops bad dudes

A: First of all--we have to stop it. We can do that with combinations of walls and Border Patrol. And it won't cost the kind of money--in fact, we will save money, because people that are coming in here that shouldn't be coming in here illegally. We have some really bad dudes right here in this country, and we're getting them out and we're sending them back to where they came from. And I don't mean Mexico; they come from all over. We have some real bad ones, and they're in our prisons that we're paying for.

Marco Rubio: No green card for 10 years for current illegal immigrants

A: Yes. Before you can ever be a citizen, you have to be a permanent resident. That means a green card. And you have to be in that status for three to five years. And what I have argued is, if you have violated our laws, you should not be allowed to apply for a green card for at least 10 years. And then, when you apply for a green card, you should have to do it through the normal, regular process, not through a special process created for you. So it could take a long time for someone to ultimately apply for citizenship. But I think that's a fair way to do it. It should not be cheaper or faster to become a citizen by having come here illegally.

Donald Trump: OpEd: businesses & Republicans condemn anti-Mexico terms

Former Gov. George Pataki (R-NY) laid out what he calls are "practical" policy solutions for the issue of securing the southern U.S. border, as well as what to do with the millions of illegal immigrants already living in the country. Trump "has tapped into a chord of people who do not want to see millions of people come here illegally, but that does not justify demonizing an entire group of people," said Pataki. .

George Pataki: Practical policy: legal residency after 200 hours of service

George Pataki laid out what he calls are "practical" policy solutions for the issue of securing the southern U.S. border, as well as what to do with the millions of illegal immigrants already living in the country. Pataki's immigration proposals include allowing illegal immigrants to obtain the status of legal resident if they come forward publicly, have no criminal history, and commit to 200 hours of community service.

Donald Trump: Make Mexico pay for wall with severe economics

A: You have people coming through the border that are from all over. And they're bad. I'm talking about people that are from all over that are killers and rapists.

Q: How exactly are you going to get Mexico to pay for building a wall?

A: You force them because we give Mexico a fortune.

Q: So you would cut off business or impose tariffs unless they built the wall?

A: I would do something very severe unless they contributed or gave us the money to build the wall.

Jeb Bush: Immigrants are an engine of economic vitality

JEB BUSH (VIDEO CLIP): Immigrants are an engine of economic vitality. We need to find a way, a path to legalized status for those that have come here and have languished in the shadows. There's no way that they're going to be deported. No one is suggesting an organized effort to do that.

Q (to SEN. RICK SANTORUM): Is he right that immigration is the engine of economic vitality?

SANTORUM: Immigration can be, if immigration is done the right way. Immigration policy in America has to put America and American workers first. The focus of immigration policies [should be] on where we need certain skills or certain people to come to this country to help gin up and encourage our economy.

Rick Santorum: Focus on skilled immigrants; now most are unskilled

SANTORUM: Immigration can be, if immigration is done the right way. Immigration policy in America has to put America and American workers first. The focus of immigration policies [should be] on where we need people with certain skills to come to this country to help gin up and encourage our economy. But, unfortunately, the current legal immigration system is not that. We bring a little over a million people a year into this country on average over the past 20 years. And the overwhelming majority are folks who are lower-skilled or unskilled. And as a result of that, they are filling up a labor pool where there's not a booming growth of unskilled labor jobs in this country. And we're bringing people in who will compete against a lot of American workers. In fact, since 2000, the number of native-born Americans working in the workplace has gone down. There are fewer Americans working today who were born in America than there were 15 years ago.