Miami Herald
By Patricia Mazzei
July 8, 2015
Jeb
Bush gave perhaps his clearest answer Wednesday on whether immigrants
in the country illegally should be offered a path to U.S. citizenship --
a question that has
gotten him tangled up over the years.
"My belief is no," he told the editorial board of the New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper.
In
an interview live-streamed online by the paper, the 2016 Republican
presidential hopeful stuck to the position he laid out in his 2013 book,
Immigration Wars, which
advocated "earned legal status" for the undocumented.
"What
do we do with the 11 million people here? I think the answer is earned
legal status" over a period of perhaps eight to 10 years, Bush told the
editorial board. "That
deal is, I think, the right balance to deal with this. People came here
illegally -- there should be a consequence."
On
occasions before and after the book's publication, Bush had endorsed
making immigrants in the country illegal eligible for citizenship,
including a 2013 Senate bill
that would have done so. He has backed offering citizenship to
so-called "Dreamers," immigrants brought into the country illegally as
children. Bush reiterated Wednesday that those young people should be
treated differently, but not by executive order as President
Obama has done.
Democrat
Hillary Clinton criticized Republican presidential candidates in
general, and Bush in particular, in a CNN interview Tuesday for not
campaigning on citizenship,
a position advocates often consider a sort of litmus test on a
candidate's immigration policy. Bush's campaign fought back by calling
Clinton a flip-flopper who didn't help pass immigration reform while in
the Senate.
Two
other Republicans in the field, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and South
Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, have supported a citizenship pathway,
despite Clinton's saying the
contrary. (In Iowa, Rubio referred to Clinton's comments as "silly
talk.") Many conservative primary voters oppose anything they perceive
as immigration "amnesty."
Bush
told the Union Leader he intends to work hard for the Hispanic vote,
citing his wins in the Florida governor's races in 1998 and 2002.
"I
think I got 60 percent of the Latino vote," he said. "I got a majority
of the Democratic Hispanic vote. How did I do that? I campaigned like
this," he said, widening
his arms. "I didn't campaign like this," he said, showing an angry face
and pointing a finger downward.
"I
campaigned sensitive to the aspirations of people. I didn't assume
people wanted to get in line and get a government handout. People don't
want that."
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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