Jeb Bush Is Getting A Lot Fiercer in How He Defends Immigration

National Journal

By Lauren Fox

September 21, 2015

Jeb Bush Is Getting A Lot Fiercer in How He Defends Immigration

Be­fore the His­pan­ic Cham­ber of Com­merce Monday, Jeb Bush re­claimed his role in the 2016 Re­pub­lic­an pres­id­en­tial race as the can­did­ate most driv­en to ex­pand the GOP’s tent and open arms to Latino voters.

He’s de­clared he’ll keep push­ing even if that choice costs him with the party’s con­ser­vat­ives.

Monday, Bush barely uttered the first words of his ad­dress to the cham­ber be­fore be­ing in­ter­rup­ted by pro­test­ers call­ing for him to do more for im­mig­rants, es­pe­cially those who were brought to the coun­try il­leg­ally as chil­dren.

“Here is what I be­lieve. I be­lieve we need im­mig­ra­tion re­form,” Bush said, try­ing to quell their calls. The protests grew louder as the group chanted, “No hope is not our vote.”

“I be­lieve that Dream Act kids should have a path to cit­izen­ship,” Bush said. “I will con­tin­ue to be con­sist­ently for it ir­re­spect­ive of what the polit­ic­al rami­fic­a­tions of that are.”

Bush was al­lud­ing to what has been a fiery few months in the Re­pub­lic­an pres­id­en­tial elec­tion. Since Don­ald Trump de­clared in his an­nounce­ment speech in June that Mex­ic­an im­mig­rants were “bring­ing drugs,” “bring­ing crime,” and “are rap­ists,” a long line of Re­pub­lic­an can­did­ates have tripped over ques­tions about where they stand on im­mig­ra­tion policies from birth­right cit­izen­ship to de­port­a­tion.

In the race to win sup­port from the Re­pub­lic­an base, can­did­ates have ap­plauded Trump’s call to build a “big, beau­ti­ful wall” with Mex­ico, a feat that would cost bil­lions. Bush him­self has struggled to dis­avow Trump’s com­ments, us­ing dog-whistle terms like “an­chor ba­bies” to send a mes­sage that he un­der­stands the com­plaints of con­ser­vat­ive voters.

Monday, however, Bush ap­peared more res­ol­ute in his at­tacks against Trump and oth­er im­mig­ra­tion hard-liners in his party.

Throw­ing shade at Trump, of course, may come at a cost, but Bush seems com­fort­able set­ting him­self up for long-term suc­cess in a gen­er­al elec­tion. It’s true that he was speak­ing to a pre­dom­in­ately Latino audi­ence on Monday, but Bush ap­pears to un­der­stand what oth­ers in his party have some­how for­got­ten. Re­pub­lic­an lead­ers had hoped the party would im­prove its stand­ing with Latino voters in or­der to in­crease their chances of win­ning a na­tion­al elec­tion. That, however, would re­quire can­did­ates to aban­don short-term poll-boost­ing to save the party for 2016.

After some shaky po­s­i­tions, Bush seems to be once again tak­ing the mantle of Re­pub­lic­an real­ist on the im­mig­ra­tion is­sue. In his speech Monday, Bush ree­m­phas­ized his per­son­al con­nec­tion to im­mig­ra­tion, re­count­ing the mo­ment when at 17 years old, he saw his fu­ture wife, Columba, for the first time.

“Lightning struck,” Bush said. “I kid you not. I met the girl of my dreams.”

After 42 years of marriage, Bush emphasized his understanding and embrace of Latino culture. He scoffed at suggestions from some that his wife was less American because she was not born in the U.S.

”It is laughable,” Bush said. “It is so sad that people don’t have any sense of what the im­mig­ra­tion ex­per­i­ence is about.”

Trump has repeatedly made digs at Bush and his family's Latino culture. He has sug­ges­ted on Twit­ter that Bush cared about im­mig­ra­tion only be­cause of his Mex­ic­an-born wife. He be­rated Bush for speak­ing “Mex­ic­an” dur­ing a cam­paign stop.

Bush cautioned Monday that Latino voters should not judge the Republican Party only by “the louder voices.”

It’s time, Bush said, for voters to stand up against can­did­ates who “play the game of strik­ing fear in people’s hearts,” wheth­er they be Demo­crats or Re­pub­lic­ans. That, he ar­gued, was a strategy em­ployed by Pres­id­ent Obama.

“It is not when we di­vide people and call people idi­ots or call people not suc­cess­ful, it is when we em­brace the Amer­ic­an ex­per­i­ence to the fullest that this coun­try takes off,” Bush said.

For Bush, push­ing the party to the cen­ter on something as con­ten­tious as im­mig­ra­tion could hurt him in the primary elec­tions. But, in the long run, he may be one of the only Re­pub­lic­ans set­ting him­self up for a com­pet­it­ive gen­er­al elec­tion.

For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com