Draft Boards a Model for Immigration Fix, Gingrich Says

Politico reported that: Newt Gingrich told a Univision interviewer that he believes a "citizen board" could be a better way to deal with the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. In the interview on the network's show "Al Punto," which airs Sunday morning, Gingrich explained that during World War II, selective service boards were established so that "every local community could apply common sense to the draft process." "We may want to think about a citizen board that can actually look at things and decide, is this a person that came in two months ago and doesn't nearly have any ties here? Or is this a person who clearly is integrated into the society but unfortunately has been undocumented, therefore, we have to rethink how we are approaching them," he said. Gingrich said he is opposed to creating a pathway to citizenship for people who entered the country illegally, but at the same time he said he doesn't believe in mass deportation. "Somebody who's been here 20 years and is married and has three kids and has been paying taxes and lived a totally peaceful life" but is an undocumented alien might deserve a second chance, he said. "We got to find the way to routinize and get them in the law without necessarily getting them on a path to citizenship. Now there ought to be a way to do that."