Posted on 04/28/2015 2:17:50 PM PDT by drewh
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — 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.
Immigration is a delicate subject for him in the primacy race, with several potential rivals favoring a harder line on those who come to the U.S. illegally. But he took it up unapologetically in his remarks.
“We’re an immigrant nation and we should be proud,” he said, as someone in the audience yelled, “Yes!”
“We should create an immigration system that drives economic opportunity for all of us,” he added. “We should move toward protecting the rule of law, protecting our border, making legal immigration easier than illegal immigration for sure, but we also want to look at this as a huge opportunity.”
Said Bush: “The conservative cause would be better to embrace this rather than push it away.”
Bush also endorsed the idea of statehood for the U.S. territory, winning great applause.
“I think statehood is the best path,” he told his audience at the Metropolitan University of Cupey. “To get the full benefits and responsibilities of citizenship, being a state is the only way to make that happen.”
In large measure, Bush’s purpose seemed to be to make a cultural connection on the island where he came to campaign for his father in Puerto Rico’s first primary.
“I learned how to organize intensely here,” he said. “I learned the passion. I learned how to drink a lot of Puerto Rican rum.”
And on his Hispanic ties, he smiled and said: “I know about the immigrant experience because I married a beautiful girl from Mexico. My children are bicultural and bilingual.” His wife, Columba, is from Mexico.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
What a maroon.
Go for it John Ellis!
White guilt in every thought he makes. A true Amerephobe
I like being lectured to by Jeb about as much as I enjoyed being lectured to by Huntsman. It’s about as effective, too.
“I am one of you.”
FGS.
Do we really need another four years of a White Obama?
P.R. has turned this down several times.
What White guilt?...........He's a Hispanic, don't you know, he said so!
Missing something. when did we become ashamed of our Heritage as Americans, and disavow are English language. This is unspeakable.
Hey Jeb,
Just NO
Dumbass.
lol
Puerto Ricans (the ones who live on the island, anyway) are nearly evenly divided between proponents of statehood and those who favor the status quo ("Commonwealth" status). Of the two major political parties in Puerto Rico, the one which is affiliated with the mainland Republican Party (the "New Progressive Party") is the pro-statehood party, and the one affiliated with the Democrats (the "Popular Democratic Party") is the pro-Commonwealth party.
Sheesh. Jeb really does believe the hispanic vote is the holy grail of politics - pandering to it it seems to be all he does anymore.
Puerto Rico will become a state soon. I am thinking Cuba and Haiti and the Dominican Republic will also become states. Mexico will be added as a part of the United States.
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