Meet the Press interviews during 2017: on Immigration

Bernie Sanders: Refugee vetting mechanisms we have now are very, very strong

SANDERS: The vetting mechanisms we have now are very, very strong. If anybody has an idea as to how we can make them stronger, let's go forward. I don't think there's any debate whether you're progressive, conservative or anybody else that we want to keep the United States safe and we want to be 100% clear that anybody who comes into this country should not be coming into this country to do us harm. Where there's a whole lot of discussion about the racist, in my view, immigration policies of the Trump administration which are based on anti-Muslim ideology, which are doing us enormous harm all over the world, something else is going on at the exact same moment.

Mike Pence: Obama certified 7 Muslim countries compromised by terrorism

PENCE: Pres. Trump has made it clear he's going to put the safety and security of the American people first. And using a list of countries that the Obama administration and the Congress have certified were compromised by terrorist influence, seven different countries, is consistent with the President's commitment to do just that.

Q: But on this travel ban, no Egypt, no Saudi Arabia. No Pakistan, no Afghanistan. Why weren't those countries included? Because you wanted that Obama talking point.

PENCE: Well, no. It was done because both the Congress and the prior administration identified seven countries, one in Syria, torn asunder by civil war, and the other six--these are countries that do not have the internal systems in place so that we can be confident today that, when people present themselves for access to the United States, that they are who they say they are.

Tim Kaine: Trump's immigration ban is a religious test

KAINE: [Trump's immigration ban from seven Muslim countries] affects green card holders. It affects people on special immigrant visas like interpreters who've helped the U.S. military in foreign countries. Who would help the US if they knew we would abandon them when they're trying to come here? It's a religious test. It imposes a different burden on Muslims than others.

Q: You tweeted yesterday, "If we turn our backs on widows and orphans fleeing the very evil we despise, we do not defeat our enemies; we surrender to them." What can you do?

KAINE: The Trump administration is posed to do horrible danger to our country, our values, our people and our reputation. And we're going to do everything we can in Congress, in the courts, in state houses, in ballot boxes, online and in peaceful protests to make sure that this administration doesn't hurt the country that we love.