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The man at the microphone spoke in a language most Republican presidential primary voters do not understand. "You are part of the new wave of hope for this country," Jeb Bush said in fluent Spanish to the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference this week. Switching to English, he said the U.S. needs immigrants for the country "to become young and dynamic again." It doesn't seem to matter that Hispanic voters typically do not have much say in Republican primaries. The former Florida governor's play to Hispanic values and policy goals has begun to shape his young political operation. Well before...

The congressman who tried silencing federal law enforcement sources from exposing terrorist camps in Ciudad Juárez is contradicting the U.S. government’s assessment of the famously crime-infested Mexican city by proclaiming that it’s “far safer” than it was years ago. It appears to be a frantic effort on the part of Beto O’Rourke, a Democrat who represents El Paso Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives, to counter reports of Islamic terrorists operating in the area and joining forces with the sophisticated drug cartels that have long controlled the region. Judicial Watch broke that story last fall after receiving detailed...

Columba Bush, the press-shy wife of presumed presidential candidate Jeb Bush, will make a co-star appearance at a Miami fundraiser for her husband next month. An invitation sent to donors Friday shows that Columba Bush and her husband will appear at the event the evening of May 18. The fundraiser will be held at a youth center in the couple's hometown of Miami, with a minimum entrance fee of $25, a notably modest sum for a Bush fundraiser.

Columba Bush, the famously private wife of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, appears to be taking on an increasingly prominent role in her husband’s nascent presidential campaign. Later this month, Mrs. Bush will headline a fundraiser for her husband’s leadership PAC, Right to Rise, in Miami. This week, she attended a retreat for Mr. Bush’s donors at an oceanfront luxury hotel in Miami Beach, where she gave a heartfelt speech about her husband, according to those present. Her name has also been popping up with increasing frequency in fundraising emails — last week she asked supporters to “join with my...

Marco Rubio’s longtime friend and 2010 Senate campaign manager is about to be hired as a Hispanic-outreach adviser for the senator’s likely Republican 2016 rival, Jeb Bush, sources familiar with the decision tell POLITICO. Jose Mallea’s hiring by Bush’s Right to Rise political committee is a one-two punch for the former governor: It underscores the depth of loyalty Florida Republicans have for Bush and it shows his intense interest in turning out the Latino vote.

There was a time when Californians were the most envied people in America and around the world. California was taken away from Mexico in 1848, and the new Anglo-Saxon owners of California aggressively promoted an Anglo-Saxon civilizational identity for the state. From 1848 to 1948, there was an economic expansion that was unmatched in American history. From 1948-1988, California had become the most successful Anglo-Saxon Civilization in history. This was California's Golden Age. Wages and standards of living were higher than the rest of America. Mexican-Americans who were descended from the Mexicans who lived in California in 1848, were highly...

Cameras placed along Texas' 1,200-mile border with Mexico have captured the stream of illegal immigrants sneaking into the country on a daily basis. The network of more than 1,000 motion detectors, similar to those used to film wildlife, have been placed strategically in areas that have not been secured - where Mexican citizens can cross and evade capture with ease. They helped border guards apprehend nearly 30,000 suspects and led to 88,400 pounds of drugs being seized in 2014 as part of Operation Drawbridge. The system has also had a significant impact on Mexican cartels and their ability to smuggle...

Presumed presidential candidate Jeb Bush’s strong support of immigration reform, including a pathway to an “earned legal status” for the estimated 11 million illegal aliens in the country, did not sit well with conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin. Speaking before the National Christian Hispanic Leadership Conference in Houston on Wednesday, the former Florida governor said fixing our broken immigration system means not only “controlling the border” and “making legal immigration easier,” but also “dealing with the 11 million undocumented workers who are here in this country, 11 million people that should come out of the shadows and receive...

If National Review editor Rich Lowry was looking for compromise on immigration from Republican Jeb Bush, he’s still looking. According to NR, Bush “and Lowry tussled over immigration policy and tax pledges.” Jeb wasn’t even willing to take the seemingly easy out of opting to secure the border first. One is left to wonder what the unemployed, “younger, more dynamic people” of Baltimore and other areas might think of Jeb’s reasoning.

Prospective Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush clashed with National Review editor-in-chief Rich Lowry over immigration policy on Thursday, telling Lowry “I love you. I just think you’re wrong on immigration.” -snip- “This isn’t a zero-sum game,” Bush said, taking issue with Wisconsin governor Scott Walker’s contention that an immigration policy should, first and foremost, be based on protecting American workers and American wages. “[If] you want to grow at 4 percent instead of 2 percent per year, you need younger, more dynamic people inside of our economy to get to 4 percent growth,” he said. “You can’t do it with...

In the Republican presidential field, Jeb Bush appears more and more to be a moderate outlier—not necessarily because he is changing his views, but because so many of his potential competitors are racing each other to the right. This dynamic was on full display on Thursday, when the former Florida governor spoke at a summit hosted by National Review, where Sen. Marco Rubio, Gov. Bobby Jindal, and Gov. John Kasich will speak on Friday. In an interview with Rich Lowry, Bush held fast on his immigration record, and argued that it is better to narrow access to citizenship to spouses...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush declared Wednesday that 11 million immigrants in the country illegally should have an opportunity to stay, wading yet again into his party's contentious immigrant debate. In tone and substance, Bush stands out among the many Republicans lining up for the GOP's next presidential primary, where conservatives who oppose an immigration overhaul often hold outsized influence. As he moves toward a presidential campaign, the brother and son of former presidents has not backed away from his defense of immigrants in the country illegally and a policy that would allow them to attain legal status under certain...

U.S. Border Patrol agents have found a suspected drug tunnel with lighting and a rail-car system that connected to a home across the border in Tijuana, Mexico. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lauren Mack said agents patrolling west of the San Ysidro port of entry Tuesday morning found a sinkhole close to the U.S. border fence that opened up into the tunnel. …

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush forcefully advocated for an immigration reform plan that includes a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants during a speech Wednesday to a Hispanic faith-based group in Houston. And he showed off his Spanish speaking skills while he was at it.

HOUSTON — Jeb Bush said undocumented workers should be able to come out of the shadows, pay a fine, work, and eventually gain earned legal status in a speech to a major Hispanic evangelical organization Wednesday. Speaking to the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) with his parents George H.W. and Barbara Bush in the audience, the former Florida governor focused on his work in education in the state — but got big applause for talking about immigration and Israel. “We have to fix the broken immigration system and that means controlling the border and making sure legal immigration is...

In 1999, Columba Bush, the famously private wife of then-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, was detained and fined by federal customs officials for misrepresenting the amount of clothing and jewelry she had bought while on a solo five-day shopping spree in Paris. The incident left the Florida first lady deeply mortified and her husband politically chagrined. Jeb Bush said the first lady had misled customs officials because she did not want him to know that she had spent about $19,000 on the trip. “The embarrassment I felt made me ashamed to face my family and friends,” Columba Bush said in a...

Vows immigration partnership if Republican wins White House. HOUSTON – If the Republican Party retakes the White House in 2016, Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez hopes the GOP’s choice is Jeb Bush. At a national meeting of some 1,000 Hispanic evangelical Christian leaders Tuesday night, Gutierrez emphasized that any candidate who wants to win the White House will need the Hispanic vote. “I’m going to vote for Hillary Clinton for president, because, in the reality of politics, I can’t get elected to Congress as a Republican in the 4th Congressional District of Illinois,” Gutierrez said, responding to a question from WND....

Jeb Bush is playing up his Hispanic side: On Sunday in Miami Beach he dined with Zeus Rodriguez, president of Hispanics for School Choice in Wisconsin. Rodriguez won a lunch with Jeb contest, Bush’s campaign in waiting said. On Tuesday in Puerto Rico, Bush spoke in English and Spanish and talked about immigration. As the Washington Post reported, Bush “reiterated his support for Puerto Rican statehood and said that the next president should help make Puerto Rico a state if residents vote to do so. He reminded the crowd that he knows “the power of the immigrant experience,” because “I...

Jeb Bush confronted one of the Republican Party's touchiest debates head-on Tuesday, telling Puerto Ricans that conservatives should be proud that America is "an immigrant nation" and value the contribution immigrants make to the country. The former Florida governor and 2016 GOP presidential prospect delivered a speech on economic opportunities peppered with Spanish, and his audience responded with hearty applause. He's fluent in the language, and often uses it in Florida, but it's rarely heard in Republican presidential campaign politics. Immigration is a delicate subject for Bush in the primacy race, with several potential rivals favoring a harder line on...

A gathering of about 350 donors to the prospective Jeb Bush presidential campaign finished up a two-day conference here Monday listening to a rare public statement from the candidate's media-shy wife, Columba. "It was touching and emotional," said one person in attendance who described the three-minute speech as "very personal." She talked about about "her husband and the family and Jeb's qualities as a father, a husband, a grandfather."