Thread: Is Bush misleading voters about immigration record?

By RYAN LOVELACE • 12/21/15 12:17 PM

Did former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush mislead New Hampshire voters about the different positions he has taken on illegal immigration?

In little noticed comments on Saturday afternoon in New Hampshire, Bush argued that his position on immigration and opposition to a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants has not changed. But his public comments indicate the opposite appears true.

"Immigration — I'm the one, this is a unique situation. I've had the same view for the last four years," Bush said at a Windham town hall on Saturday. "I wrote a book about it called Immigration Wars. It's not what you call a bestseller. You can buy it for a buck ninety-nine on Amazon, I encourage you to do it. And chapter one lays out exactly what I thought then and what I think now, which is we need to secure the border and we need to deal with people that are here illegally in a way that does not give them a path to citizenship."

But in 2012 — three years ago — Bush told Charlie Rose he would support a "path to citizenship" for illegal immigrants.

"Either a path to citizenship, which I would support and that does put me probably out of the mainstream of most conservatives, or a path to legalization, a path to residency of some kind, which now hopefully will become — I would accept that in a heartbeat as well if that`s the path to get us to where we need to be which is on a positive basis using immigration to create sustained growth," Bush said.

The Bush campaign did not immediately respond to request for comment on the governor's differing stances. His decision to change his position and tone on immigration appears to coincide with GOP voters growing anger at President Obama's executive actions on immigration and the 2014 crisis at the southern border where thousands of Central Americans came flooding into the United States.

Bush, who ranks fourth in the Washington Examiner's newest GOP presidential power rankings, trails four Republican presidential candidates in New Hampshire, including Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Chris Christie, according to RealClearPolitics' average of Granite State polls.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/is...stom_click=rss

Yes, he's misleading them on pathway to citizenship, same as Cruz is misleading a lot of people on his support for legalization in some form, including just letting them stay here with or without permission.

Trump is the only one who has been committed to deporting all illegal aliens and actually solving the problem. He's also the only one who will actually do it. I hope my fellow Republicans don't get fooled again by copy cats and johnnie-come-latelies trying to win a nomination, because as soon as they would win it, we're stuck for 4 years with either our own candidate who won't do it and/or can't do it or a Democrat who won't even try to do it.

Originally Posted by Judy

Yes, he's misleading them on pathway to citizenship, same as Cruz is misleading a lot of people on his support for legalization in some form, including just letting them stay here with or without permission.

Trump is the only one who has been committed to deporting all illegal aliens and actually solving the problem. He's also the only one who will actually do it. I hope my fellow Republicans don't get fooled again by copy cats and johnnie-come-latelies trying to win a nomination, because as soon as they would win it, we're stuck for 4 years with either our own candidate who won't do it and/or can't do it or a Democrat who won't even try to do it.

Not supporting becoming a police state, kicking in doors and pulling its occupants out by the hair at 2:00 a.m. before stuffing them in cattle cars, doesn't mean you support leaving illegals alone and in limbo. Cruz has said repeatedly that he support the full enforcement of our immigration laws. That alone is a huge improvement over what we have now or have had for decades. I'm a strong believer in attrition through enforcement. Many illegals will leave on their own if we enforce our immigration laws as written. Securing the border and making it impossible for them to work and function in our society is key. Cruz's former position on expanding legal immigration, which he no longer supports, is the only reason he's my #2 choice and not #1. I'll admit Trumps insistence that he'll deport all illegals makes for interesting soundbites, but I have serious doubts that it'll happen in the way he is leading us to believe. Furthermore, I have a huge concern over his repeatedly saying he'll let all the "good ones" come right back. I have not heard of a change on that. I maintain my right to change my mind, but right now I support Trump #1 and Cruz #2.

Originally Posted by MW

Not supporting becoming a police state, kicking in doors and pulling its occupants out by the hair at 2:00 a.m. before stuffing them in cattle cars, doesn't mean you support leaving illegals alone and in limbo. Cruz has said repeatedly that he support the full enforcement of our immigration laws. That alone is a huge improvement over what we have now or have had for decades. I'm a strong believer in attrition through enforcement. Many illegals will leave on their own if we enforce our immigration laws as written. Securing the border and making it impossible for them to work and function in our society is key. Cruz's former position on expanding legal immigration, which he no longer supports, is the only reason he's my #2 choice and not #1. I'll admit Trumps insistence that he'll deport all illegals makes for interesting soundbites, but I have serious doubts that it'll happen in the way he is leading us to believe. Furthermore, I have a huge concern over his repeatedly saying he'll let all the "good ones" come right back. I have not heard of a change on that. I maintain my right to change my mind, but right now I support Trump #1 and Cruz #2.

Why don't you support police arresting illegal aliens at whatever times they can find them and get them loaded up, off to a deportation hearing and booted out of here?!

I mean that's what we do to criminal citizens all across our country every day, because that's what enforcement involves.

On Trump's statement, under current law there's no mechanism for that and he has not proposed a change in our law to accommodate it. Also, when he elaborates on his statement, he refers to highly technical well educated scientists and such, so he's largely referring to a door for a few exceptions pertaining to visa overstays. Also his immigration plan puts a halt on immigration virtually across the board as I read it so I'm not concerned about it. But you're free to be if you wish.

Originally Posted by Judy

Why don't you support police arresting illegal aliens at whatever times they can find them and get them loaded up, off to a deportation hearing and booted out of here?!

I mean that's what we do to criminal citizens all across our country every day, because that's what enforcement involves.

On Trump's statement, under current law there's no mechanism for that and he has not proposed a change in our law to accommodate it. Also, when he elaborates on his statement, he refers to highly technical well educated scientists and such, so he's largely referring to a door for a few exceptions pertaining to visa overstays. Also his immigration plan puts a halt on immigration virtually across the board as I read it so I'm not concerned about it. But you're free to be if you wish.

Why would you suggest I don't support such I thing? Of course I do. Heck, I support getting them out of here any which way we can short of physical violence. However, common sense tell me the American people as a whole aren't going to support turning our country into a police state, especially when children are involved.

As for Trump, it doesn't matter if there is a mechanism for what he says he's going to do or not. Haven't you always told us, Trump will do what he says he's going to do? Furthermore, an illegal immigrant is an illegal immigrant, I don't care if he works for a landscaping company or in the biotech industry! Besides that, I've heard him say ALL "good ones" several times without making qualifications.

Originally Posted by MW

Why would you suggest I don't support such I thing? Of course I do. Heck, I support getting them out of here any which way we can short of physical violence. However, common sense tell me the American people as a whole aren't going to support turning our country into a police state, especially when children are involved.

As for Trump, it doesn't matter if there is a mechanism for what he says he's going to do or not. Haven't you always told us, Trump will do what he says he's going to do? Furthermore, an illegal immigrant is an illegal immigrant, I don't care if he works for a landscaping company or in the biotech industry! Besides that, I've heard him say ALL "good ones" several times without making qualifications.

I haven't ever heard him say "all" but I have heard him qualify it. But if you have then that's okay. I'm confident that I'll be happy with his decisions. We don't want to be stupid with the scientists and engineers and others involved in critical research and applications.

Well, I said that because you were taking the old pro-illegal alien story and accusing police involved in removing them of creating a police state, and said you didn't want them awakened at 2 am, pulled out by their hair and shoved into cattle cars. Nighttime is the best time to do an arrest because people aren't home during the day, and sometimes police have to get a little rough getting you into handcuffs if you resist and many may, and I doubt police are allowed to use cattle cars to haul people, I've never heard of such a thing, but there might be buses or vans, depending on how many there are in the house or wherever they're executing the warrant.

Sometimes there's a lot of people in there. So they'll definitely need to make arrangements for those numbers. At the same time, I have every confidence in our federal, state and local law enforcement to do this job to the same standard they hold and execute when arresting Americans.