Thread: Jeb Bush Flips And Flops On Amnesty

Posted By Patrick Howley On 10:05 PM 03/16/2015 In | No Comments

Republican presidential aspirant Jeb Bush has different positions on amnesty depending on which audience he’s talking to.

Bush visited New Hampshire this weekend and discussed his amnesty position at a business roundtable held at Integra Biosciences. In front of the business crowd, Bush supported a path to “legal status” for illegal immigrants — a buzzword for non-citizenship that would allow illegals to work for companies that want cheap labor.

“The best plan, the most realistic plan, the grown-up plan, once you control the border … is to say, ‘Let these folks achieve, earn legal status,’” Bush said. “If we just keep people in the shadows, we’re not going to solve our immigration problems.”

But sometimes Bush supports a path to outright citizenship, like when he was in New York City chatting up PBS host Charlie Rose.

“You have to deal with this issue. You can’t ignore it,” Bush told Rose in 2012. “And so, 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.”

But wait a minute. In 2013, he outright blasted citizenship in his book “Immigration Wars.”

“Permanent residency in this context, however, should not lead to citizenship,” Bush wrote with a co-author. “It is absolutely vital to the integrity of our immigration system that actions have consequences — in this case, that those who violated the laws can remain but cannot obtain the cherished fruits of citizenship… A grant of citizenship is an undeserving reward for conduct that we cannot afford to encourage.”

But wait a minute. Then he said on MSNBC that his book was old and that he’s actually for citizenship.

“We wrote this book last year, not this year, and we proposed a path to legalization, so anybody that had come illegally would have immediately a path to legalization,” Bush said. “If you can craft that in law, where you can have a path to citizenship where there isn’t an incentive for people to come illegally, I’m for it. I don’t have a problem with that.”

He also said on CNN in 2013 that he has supported both options, presumably at different times.

That’s a lot of changing of positions in advocating for amnesty. But it’s no small matter. As president, would Jeb Bush push for legalization for workers, and for a path to citizenship? Unless he’s lucky, he might still have to tell us.

http://dailycaller.com/2015/03/16/je...ps-on-amnesty/

It's funny watching the Bush flip and flop like a fish on a dock. He's the "Tommy Flanagan" of the 2016 elections, "Yeah, that's the ticket", pathological liar character from Saturday Night Live.

Sorry, Jeb, we're fed up with the Bushes, and you're a perfect example of why we're sick and tired of being Bushwhacked. No thanks, now go sit down and shut up.

By Mark Krikorian — March 17, 2015

In his book, Jeb Bush makes the case for amnesty without the possibility of citizenship. The book is emphatic on this point, and Jeb took some heat from his immigration-expansionist confederates when it came out. An excerpt from pp. 43-44 (my emphasis):

Permanent residency in this context, however, should not lead to citizenship. It is absolutely vital to the integrity of our immigration system that actions have consequences — in this case, that those who violated the laws can remain but cannot obtain the cherished fruits of citizenship. To do otherwise would signal once again that people who circumvent the system can still obtain the full benefits of American citizenship. It must be a basic prerequisite for citizenship to respect the rule of law. But those who entered illegally, despite compelling reasons to do so in many instances, did so knowing that they were violating the law of the land. A grant of citizenship is an undeserving reward for conduct that we cannot afford to encourage. … Our proposal imposes two penalties for illegally [sic] entry: fines and/or community services, and ineligibility for citizenship.”

You might think from all this that Jeb is, you know, against citizenship for illegals.

You would be wrong.

In describing his immigration proposal as the “grown-up” plan in New Hampshire last week, Jeb endorsed the 2013 Schumer-Rubio bill and its pathway to citizenship for illegals. This by itself wasn’t new — he’d expressed similar sentiments in the past. But until now, he’d never been so bold as to all-but-admit that his sporadic advocacy of a non-citizenship amnesty is a political ploy designed to overcome public resistance. As the Wall Street Journal put it: “Mr. Bush said he could also be supportive of a path to citizenship for people in the country illegally – as he did at one time – but said there currently isn’t sufficient political support for it.”

This isn’t the usual case of a politician emulating Groucho Marx in saying “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.” He’s more like the car salesman asking “What can I do to get you into this car today?” Like the car salesman, Jeb knows what his goal is — citizenship for illegal aliens — but calculates that getting there will require a certain amount of song-and-dance about “ineligibility for citizenship,” at least to certain audiences. More than merely a campaign gimmick, it’s a legislative strategy; once the illegals have work permits, Jeb rightly calculates that getting them over the finish line to citizenship will be more politically feasible.

This isn’t to say there’s no intellectually serious argument for a non-citizenship amnesty as the end point, rather than merely a way-station. Peter Skerry (echoed by Yuval Levin and Reihan Salam) makes a reasoned case for “legalization for as many undocumented immigrants as possible, but citizenship for none of them.” I myself think this is a politically unsustainable approach — it seems certain that Congress would grant them full access to citizenship within just a few years, breaking their promise to the public — but Skerry isn’t promoting it as a political ploy to dupe the voters.

Jeb is. This kind of political dishonesty is ironic considering something else he said last week in New Hampshire:

Just because there is “political heat” around an issue, Bush said, “you don’t abandon your core beliefs.”

“You need to be genuine. You need to have a backbone,” he added.

If Jeb really did have “backbone” he would clearly state his core belief in full citizenship for illegals, but concede that since the Republican Party’s yahoos can’t swallow that, he’ll settle for work permits as a first step and fight for citizenship further down the road.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner...mark-krikorian

Jeb Bush has no loyalty to the American People or the American Nation. He's Mr. Free Trade Treason to the 3rd degree and Mr. Open Borders all the way. By his genetics, he could care less about any of the things most Americans care the most about.

Originally Posted by Jean

If Jeb really did have “backbone” he would clearly state his core belief in full citizenship for illegals, but concede that since the Republican Party’s yahoos can’t swallow that, he’ll settle for work permits as a first step and fight for citizenship further down the road.

Whatever his flipping and flopping, I'm certain that he's doing out of love - for what, I'm not so sure.
*****************************
Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade