In the interest of transparency, here's the full transcript of the 2013 exchange, which you can also watch in the video above. Emphasis added in a couple of places:
WALKER: If people want to come here and work hard in America, I don't care whether they come from Mexico or Ireland or Germany or South Africa or anywhere else, I want 'em here. To me, if people want to come and live the American dream, if they want to work hard and self-determination and have their kids have a better life, I mean that's what whether you're folks like my brother's in-laws who immigrated a generation ago from Mexico or whether it's people like my ancestors who came from places like Ireland and Germany and other parts of the world many generations ago, there's a similar pattern there. That is, people who came, who risk a lot, whether it's traveling across an ocean or across a national border.
So anyway, long story short to that, not only do I think they need to fix things for people who are already here, find some way to deal with that (but also) there's got to be a larger way to fix the system in first place. Because if it wasn't so cumbersome, if there wasn't such a long wait, if it wasn't so difficult to get in, you wouldn't have the other problems that we have with people who don't have legal status in the first place.
That seems to be, at least to me, what I hear in the national debate, largely overlooked. It all is about the 11 million and I don't know how we get that exact number because people, if they're not here legally, I don't know exactly how you figure out when it's 11 million, or 25 million or whatever it is, but we've heard enough about it that it's a real issue. But, like I said, I don't know why you hear some people talk about border security and a wall and all that. To me, I don't know that you need any of that if you had a better, saner way to let people into the country in the first place.
DAILY HERALD: That's definitely true, but we have these millions of people. You don't deal with federal (issues) and I understand you don't need to have a position on this specific bill, but on the broad question, it would be interesting to know your thinking. The biggest split is about what to do with those 11 million or whatever it is. Can you envision a world where, with the right penalties and waiting periods and meet the requirements, where those people could get citizenship?
WALKER: Sure. Yeah. I mean, I think it makes sense. But what I'm saying is, in the context of fixing it. Because otherwise we do this kind of Band-Aid approach, and the federal government is it's why I'm not a big fan of a lot of things in the federal government, regardless of party. Not that we're perfect of the state, but you can get your hands around issues like that at the state. The federal government, it just seems just the mere fact that they're having that debate without having a discussion about, why is the system itself, why aren't we fixing that, just seems to be kind of the vacuum of that decisions are made in at the federal level.
I see.
You’ve made quite a hobby of this.
Walker has stated his position:
Just as Ted Cruz said in 2013, Walker does not support amnesty.
Like Cruz, Walker supports a secure border.
Yep, Scott Walker wants to grant the illegals citizenship.
Cruz is trying to give as little to, or take as much from, that movement, as is possible.
I am sorry to tell you but the only way we will get rid of all of the illegals is to change the makeup of the US SCOTUS, and in a big way. The Courts are going to block any wholesale mass deportation.