Thread: Jeb Bush’s immigration evolution: Earned legal status but no path to citizenship

Meanwhile, they will not clarify birthright citizenship and the illegals keep pumping out welfare kids. Folks aren't buying this stuff. we shouldn't provide anything more to illegal looters.

Jeb Bush’s immigration evolution: Earned legal status but no path to citizenship



In response to a voter’s question at a New Hampshire forum, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush reiterated that “I honestly think we need to provide a path to legalized status, not citizenship, for illegal immigrants.” Analysts say it is hard ... more >


By Seth McLaughlin - The Washington Times - Wednesday, July 8, 2015

HUDSON, N.H. — 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.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...#ixzz3fOUsL7CM

From the Liberals...
Hypocrite Jeb Bush Caught Profiting Off Of Obamacare

July 3, 2015
by Rowan Lee

Jeb Bush is firmly against Obamacare – like any good Republican – yet privately he earned $556,283 in capital gains from betting on Obamacare in 2010 and 2011. According to tax returns released by Jeb Bush’s campaign this week, Bush sold over a million dollars worth of stock in Tenet Healthcare in the fall of 2013 – a move that doubled his investment within two years.

Tim Miller, a spokesman for Bush, has brushed off the gains as little more than “portfolio balancing.” In reality, Bush made key investments that hedged on Obamacare’s success. Bush served as director of Tenet Healthcare from 2007 to 2014, and was required to hold significant stock in Tenet. That investment led him to a 105% gain at a time when the S&P 500 index sat steady at 26%.

As with other hospital related stocks, Tenet’s market value jumped from October 2012 through March 2013 following the re-election of Obama and the passing of the Affordable Care Act. This caused stocks to climb rapidly as hospitals expected increased usage and a reduction in care for uninsured patients.
Bush’s profits stand in quizzical contrast to previous statements on the Affordable Care Act – as he had stated previously to CNN, “I have doubts because I think if three years from now, as I understand it, three or four years from now, the deal is that the fed match goes from 95 [percent] back to what it is now, which is about 55 in Florida.” The ACA in reality provides 100 percent federal backing through 2016, and is set to drop no lower than 90 percent thereafter.

Florida remains as one of the 23 states that have not expanded Medicaid due to opposition from those like Bush. It appears that though the ACA is ‘not good enough’ for Florida, it is good enough to earn Jeb Bush a hefty pile of cash.

http://samuel-warde.com/2015/07/hypo...off-obamacare/

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.”

Mr. Bush is speaking out of both sides of his mouth because his plan would do exactly what he says he's against. He says, "You earn legal status, you don't cut in front of people who have been patiently waiting to come here legally into the country." Well, by allowing the illegals to stay here, he is effectively allowing them to cut to the front of the line! All illegals must go home and apply, along with everyone else, to come here in the correct manner. Of course since they came here illegally in the first place, they shouldn't be allowed to apply for reentry until after a 10 year span.

Furthermore, anyone with half a brain knows that any illegal given legal status will eventually be eligible for naturalization. The country will never support keeping them in a 2nd class status. Nope, the only answer is deportation or attrition through the enforcement of our written immigration laws. By attrition, I mean making it so difficult for them to live here illegally that they will self-deport.