Covered at Reason 24/7: Jeb Bush Wants Better Immigrant Path to Residency, not Citizenship

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has a book on immigration hitting the stores this week called Immigration Wars. While he's a known immigration reformist, he is balking at a "path to citizenship" plan because he believes it creates incentives for even more illegal immigration. Instead he would prefer a path to legal residency rather than citizenship.

Via ABC News (and a Bush appearance on NBC's Today show):

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Monday he does not support a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants living in the U.S., a central provision of immigration reform plans being considered by Congress.

Bush has long chided the Republican Party to adopt immigration reform and improve its outreach to minority and immigrant voters. But he said that a path to citizenship would violate the rule of law, and instead is proposing giving a path to legal permanent residency to many of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country.

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Comments

[Red]

http://reason.com/blog/2013/03.....et#comment

[Red]

Because letting people live and work in America won't motivate more to come, but letting them vote will. So much sense. And it's useless because their children will be able to vote. The GOP will die eventually unless they do something about immigration NOW!

[GILMORE]

SOMETHING!!

(crickets)

[Brett L]

Too bad about his pedigree, he would've made a good president.

[Pro Libertate]

He's a least got some limited government in him. Must've been adopted.

[Pro Libertate]

At least, that is.

[BakedPenguin]

And he was a good politician. I know leftists who grudgingly admit he wasn't that bad.

[ant1sthenes]

I think at minimum any sort of amnesty should avoid placing someone here illegally ahead of someone who went through the system and all the attendant bullshit.

[GILMORE]

how does giving people equal status under the law place anyone 'ahead' of anything?

while i sympathize with those who struggle with the shitty system, i dont think it justifies making things harder for people just to be "fair"

[Bam!]

Gotta give Jeb credit, he is very well skilled at taking both sides of the issue. No, we will not give them amnesty; Yes, they will be allowed to stay here. It's not time to talk about increasing taxes, but I'll increase taxes if they address our budget issues.

He has much potential.

[T. Monocle Underbitington]

The main issue here is the arbitrary quotas and hoops that immigrants must jump through just to get in line. We understand while immigrants would want to come here, and I, for one, will welcome anyone who wants to work or create here with open arms. But with 8 years and tens of thousands of dollars doled out to lawyers and bureaucrats as the best case scenario, it becomes a herculean task for anyone to achieve citizenship, or even residency legally.

Raise the quotas, simplify the process, and most of this problem goes away on its own. If people are coming here, we should at least know who they are and what their plans are. Beyond that, welcome to the US of A, and have fun pursuing that happiness we used to talk about.

My wife would like to propose a "One In, One Out" agreement with other countries: for every able-bodied worker your country sends us, you agree to receive one of our trailer-dwelling welfare recipients. There's a reason I married her.

[Bam!]

"There's a reason I married her." For sex?

[BakedPenguin]

Why not link immigration quotas to the unemployment rate? Also, I agree with making legal residency the option of choice.

[BakedPenguin]

Oh - SLD on the above, I just meant adding that proviso as a means of making it politically palatable.

[GILMORE]

AMNESTY DERP

TEH CULTURS IS SOCIALISTS

TAKIN ER JARBS

ANKER BABIES

[ZinxMinx]

Sounds like a very cool plan to me wow.

http://www.AnonProx.da.bz