Former Gov.
Jeb Bush (R-Fla.) is shaking things up in Republican Party
politics. At the same moment that
he is being discussed by some as a savior for the Party of
Lincoln come 2016, he lays down this beautiful beat to a Fox News
reporter at an event at his dad’s presidential library:
“The way I look at this is someone who comes to our country
because they couldn’t come legally … and they crossed the border
because they had no other means to work, to be able to provide for
their family, yes, they broke the law, but it’s not a felony.“It’s an act of love, it’s an act of commitment to your
family.Bush, 61, added: “I honestly think that that is a different kind
of crime. There should be a price paid, but it shouldn’t rile
people up that people are actually coming to this country to
provide for their families.”
Read the whole account via Reuters.
What Jeb said.
If the GOP faithful cannot
understand, empathize, and deal with the 12 million or so illegals
in the country—except to tell them to get the hell out, build a
wall that would have made Erich Honecker proud, and mandate a
worker verification system that will be a nightmare on tech and
constitutional grounds—they will forever write off the votes not
simply of Latinos but most Americans. A 2013 Reason-Rupe
Poll found that 70 percent of people favored letting illegals
stay and get on a path to citizenship (55 percent), gain legal
residency (4 percent), or become guest workers (11 percent). Of
course they do: Even people who feel threatened by newcomers
recognize that immigration isn’t simply in the DNA of
America, it is the DNA of America.
We’ve all heard the standard line: “I don’t mind immigration,
it’s the illegal part of it I don’t like.” Each time a
Republican says that without then explaining how they plan to
expand legal immigration, you know that he is full of it on the
immigration issue.
In fact, the Republicans are so full of it on this issue that
they have come to embrace a nightmare mandatory program, E-Verify,
that “turns
work into a privilege and empowers the surveillance state.”
This comes after complaining (rightly!) about Obamacare’s
individual mandate and that law’s reach into people’s privacy.
At the same time, the Republicans have let a potent political
issue to slip through their fingers. President Barack Obama is the
worst president in terms of deporting immigrants, but he and the
Democrats are getting a free ride on the issue thanks to the GOP’s
atavistic anti-Hispanic rhetoric (Iowa’s
Steve King, anyone?).
From yesterday’s
New York Times:
The records show the largest increases were in deportations
involving illegal immigrants whose most serious offense was listed
as a traffic violation, including driving under the influence.
Those cases more than quadrupled from 43,000 during the last five
years of President George W. Bush’s administration to 193,000
during the five years Mr. Obama has been in office. In that same
period, removals related to convictions for entering or re-entering
the country illegally tripled under Mr. Obama to more than
188,000….“For years, the Obama administration’s spin has been that they
are simply deporting so-called ‘criminal aliens,’ but the numbers
speak for themselves,” said Marielena Hincapié, executive director
of the National Immigration Law Center. “In truth, this
administration — more than any other — has devastated immigrant
communities across the country, tearing families away from loved
ones, simply because they drove without a license, or re-entered
the country desperately trying to be reunited with their family
members.”
If the GOP can’t flesh out Rand Paul’s pledge to illegals—if you
want to work here, “we
will find a place for you“—with a serious proposal, well, it
was nice knowing them.
Must-read: Ed Krayewski’s “5
Reasons to Grant Amnesty to Illegal Immigrants.”
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