Below are listed some statements by highly respected individuals (often cited as authorities) that have been mentioned, interpreted, and cited by people on both sides of the immigration issue.

• Milton Friedman on immigration and the welfare state: Friedman highlights the tension between immigration and the welfare state. Restrictionists have seized on this as an anti-immigration argument, whereas open borders advocates argue both that Friedman missed some things and that his intention was to critique the welfare state, not immigration.
• Krugman on immigration: small gain for natives, giant leap for immigrants: Krugman is concerned about the fact that immigration hurts some subsets of US workers. He expresses considerable ambivalence about immigration. Restrictionists praise him for dissenting from the economist consensus while advocates of open borders gently chide him for his doubts.