Free Republic

The Republican chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus blasted GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Tuesday for calling to allow some illegal immigrants to remain in the country. Speaking on CNN’s “John King, USA,” Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.) likened the former House Speaker’s plan to drilling a hole in the bottom of a sinking boat to let the water out. “Newt, I don’t care who you are,” Bilbray said. “Quit sending the mixed message that we are going to somehow reward or accommodate you if you broke the law while there are those waiting patiently and playing by the rules,...

Just days after Newt Gingrich won the endorsement of the New Hampshire Union Leader, one of his rivals sat down with another Granite State newspaper. Rick Santorum met with the editorial board of the Nashua Telegraph Monday for an hour and was asked about Gingrich’s comments on immigration at last week’s CNN and American Enterprise Institute debate. At the debate, Gingrich voiced a moderate approach to illegal immigration saying he would not remove all illegal immigrants that are currently in the country. “I do not believe that the people of the United States are going to take people who have...

WASHINGTON — Newt Gingrich isn’t backing off his “humane” immigration stance despite complaints from Republican hardliners and fellow Presidential hopefuls — he’s embellishing it. The former House speaker issued “10 Steps to a Legal Nation” this week, expanding on his remarks during Tuesday’s GOP debate (snip) Those guilty only of sneaking into the U.S. would have a path “to legality, but not citizenship” similar to the existing naturalization process, plus a penalty fee of at least $5,000.

GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich defended his immigration stance Friday, claiming that he was "not for amnesty." “I am not for amnesty for anyone. I am not for a path to citizenship for anybody who got here illegally,” Gingrich said at a town hall event in Naples, Florida according to media reports. “But I am for a path to legality for those people whose ties run so deeply in America that it would truly be a tragedy to try and rip their family apart," said the former House Speaker. Gingrich has been under fire from some anti-illegal immigration groups since...

f Newt Gingrich is a "policy wonk" as his friends proclaim, he is a very lazy one. He should have read the Kriebel Foundation's "Red Card Solution" before endorsing it as a non-amnesty solution to our immigration conundrum. The so-called Red Card Solution purports to create a new guest-worker program that solves all of our immigration problems. It strengthens border security, helps employers fill low-skilled jobs, bars criminals from participation and does all of this by "empowering the private sector" without use of taxpayer dollars. Maybe in the fine print it also wipes out the national debt. The problem is,...

NAPLES, FL -- Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich defended his immigration policy after days of criticism from other GOP contenders – reiterating that he does not support amnesty -- on Friday night before his largest crowd yet on the campaign trail. "I am not for amnesty for anyone. I am not for a path to citizenship for anybody who got here illegally," Gingrich told the crowd of roughly 750 people, many of whom were forced to stand in the hallway........... "I think the vast majority [of illegal immigrants] will go home and should go home and then should reapply. I do...

Influential congressman Steve King (R-Iowa) said Wednesday that presidential candidate Newt Gingrich's immigration plan was a "form of amnesty" and that he disagreed with it, adding to the chorus of critics from the right. In Tuesday's GOP foreign policy debate, Gingrich said he would support an immigration policy that would allow illegal immigrants who had lived in the United States for a long time, obeyed the law, and paid their taxes to become permanent residents. “I do not believe that the people of the United States are going to take people who’ve been here for a quarter of a century...

DES MOINES — Having just taken his place at the front of the Republican presidential pack, Newt Gingrich now faces a potential backlash from conservative activists here in Iowa over an immigration proposal that he called “humane” but that his opponents quickly decried as providing “amnesty.” The former House speaker appears to have alienated some of the conservatives who had warmed to his candidacy by saying Tuesday in a candidates debate that he would allow millions of illegal immigrants who have settled in the United States to become legal residents.

<p>“I do not believe that the people of the United States are going to take people who’ve been here for a quarter of a century … [and] separate them from their families and expel them,” Gingrich said during a discussion about illegal immigration and border security. “I do believe we should control the border. I do believe we should have very severe penalties.”</p>