Washington Times
By Seth McLaughlin
July 8, 2015
Former
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday that he does not support a path to
citizenship for illegal immigrants, raising additional questions about
his evolution on
the thorny issue, which has created headaches for both parties in
Washington and the crowded presidential field.
The
pressure is on Mr. Bush in New Hampshire, which political observers say
could make or break his chance of winning the Republican nomination. He
faces the challenges
of distancing himself from a number of other candidates who see the
state as a springboard to the nomination, and from the lingering legacy
of his brother George W. Bush, who oversaw a 2007 immigration program
that included path to citizenship.
During
an interview Wednesday with the New Hampshire Union Leader in
Manchester, Mr. Bush was asked whether he supported a pathway to full citizenship. He replied, “No.”
“What do we do with the 11 million people here? I think the answer is earned legal status,” he said.
He
made the comments a day after former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, accused Mr.
Bush of flip-flopping on
a pathway to citizenship.
“He
doesn’t believe in a path to citizenship. If he did at one time, he no
longer does,” Mrs. Clinton said during a rare interview with CNN.
Independent fact-checkers said Mrs. Clinton’s charge was mostly true, although she also has evolved on the issue.
Analysts
said it has been hard to pin down Mr. Bush on the issue. They cannot
determine whether Mr. Bush is pushing to permanently bar those who
receive “earned legal
status” from eventually applying for citizenship or whether it would be
a step in that direction.
“I
think that his pronouncements on immigration should be met with the
utmost skepticism,” said Steven Camarota, director of research for the
Center for Immigration Studies,
which has warned about the bad effects of legal and illegal
immigration. “There is a lot of gray area here.”
Frank
Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, which advocates for a
pathway to citizenship, agreed from the other end of the issue, saying
it has “been tricky to
follow” Mr. Bush on the matter.
“It is a divisive issue within the party, and even Jeb Bush is speaking out of both sides of his mouth,” Mr. Sharry said.
Indeed,
Mr. Bush has come under fire from grass-roots conservatives and tea
partyers for his support of Common Core and his comments on immigration.
“I
suspect he is going to vague on it on purpose, because he wants to say
to the conservatives in the party that ‘I am against citizenship,’ and
he wants Latinos to hear,
‘I am open to citizenship,’” Mr. Sharry said. “Him saying ‘earned legal
status’ is deliberately vague to communicate the hard-line position to
the right, but it also is not so clear, so that he can still pivot on
the issue in the general election.”
The
Bush camp downplayed the notion that Mr. Bush has moved on the issue,
saying he wants legal status but would be willing to support a pathway
to citizenship. Mr. Bush,
though, restated his position during a town-hall-style meeting at a
local Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in response to a question from a
voter.
“I honestly think we need to provide a path to legalized status, not citizenship, for illegal immigrants,” Mr. Bush said.
Mr.
Bush said Wednesday that legal status would be the final step in a
broader plan to fix the immigration system that would start with
securing the nation’s borders.
He also would strengthen the E-Verify system, stiffen penalties for
businesses that hire illegal immigrants and freeze federal dollars from
going to “sanctuary cities” that do not comply with immigration law.
Immigration
jumped to the top of the Republican agenda after Hispanics voted
overwhelmingly for President Obama in the 2012 election and Republicans
concluded that Mitt
Romney’s harsh rhetoric, calling for “self-deportation,” on immigration
burned them at the polls.
Mr.
Bush, who served as governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007, said it is
not “viable to make conditions so hard that people self-deport.”
He
also said it would be costly and take decades to deport the people
living in the U.S. illegally and instead offered what he described as
the “right middle ground.”
He
said illegal immigrants could earn legal status after a number of years
— “it could be eight years or 10 years” — in which they work, learn to
speak English, pay a
fine and don’t commit a crime.
“You
earn legal status, you don’t cut in front of people who have been
patiently waiting to come legally into the country,” Mr. Bush said.
“That deal, I think, is a fair
deal, it is a realistic deal. It is a practical deal, and immigrants
would take that in a heartbeat.”
Earlier
this year, Mr. Bush said he would be open to legislation that included a
pathway to citizenship but added that there was not enough political
support for the idea.
In a 2013 Wall Street Journal op-ed, he called on lawmakers to pass the
immigration overhaul that Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Lindsey
Graham of South Carolina — two of his rivals for the nomination now —
helped push through the Senate.
Mr.
Graham has since warned that he would not sign an immigration bill that
does not include a path to citizenship. Mr. Rubio, meanwhile, has
shifted his attention to
securing the nation’s borders, saying that should be the first step.
Mr.
Bush is leading the Republican presidential pack in national polls. He
is tied for second in Iowa and running first in New Hampshire.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
No comments:
Post a Comment