Jeb Bush voiced his support for immigration reform in the United States while promoting US Senate candidate Terri Lynn Land and Governor Rick Snyder in Grand Rapids on Monday. The former governor of Florida believes that immigration reform is – or should be – one of the key principles of the conservative agenda.
“If we want to create high, sustained economic growth where more people have a chance at earned success, which I think should be the driver for our philosophy as Republicans and conservatives, then fixing a broken immigration system has to be part of that,” Bush claimed. On the same note, Land herself declared that she would consider a pathway toward legal residency – albeit not full US citizenship – for undocumented immigrants under a reform plan that would also feature funding toward a fence on the border. Bush’s remarks are not the first time that he has advocated providing a route for legal residency for undocumented immigrants, as he supported the comprehensive reform bill created by the Gang of Eight that passed through the Senate in 2013, only to stall in the House of Representatives.
Land says she is against providing “amnesty” to undocumented immigrants but concedes that a pathway to legal residency is a possibility she is open to discussing. “We have to reform the system,” she notes, adding: “I’m open to the idea that people who have come here and haven’t committed any crimes, have been good citizens and paid taxes, could have the ability to be here legally. Not citizenship, but to be here legally.”