Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush took a new position on immigration Tuesday by saying he would support legislation that had a path of citizenship for people entering the country illegally.
“I would support it,” Bush said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, “if it didn’t create an incentive for people to come illegally at the expense of coming legally.”
His statements today were clearly an attempt to clean up the political mess he may have caused himself yesterday.
On the first day of his national book tour, Bush said that undocumented immigrants should get a chance to become permanent U.S. residents, but not U.S. citizens.
At a talk sponsored by the Manhattan Institute, Bush said that under his proposal, undocumented immigrants would plead guilty to entering illegally, and would pay fines or perform community service. Then they would be required to pay taxes, learn English and stay out of trouble with the law.
“They’d be allowed to stay here, like a green card holder,” Bush said, adding that their permanent resident card might be a different color from that of other legal immigrants. “But if you want to become a citizen, you’d have to go back to your country.”
Bush, who was governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007, is married to a Mexican national.
Source: Fox News
