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Members of the Senate failed to advance any immigration laws on Feb. 15, leaving the fate of various U.S. immigrants in an ongoing state of limbo. News of the vote came in as hundreds of attendees sat in Irvine Auditorium, listening to former Vice President Joe Biden and former Governor of Florida Jeb Bush discuss immigration policy with Penn President Amy Gutmann. The two-hour discussion was punctuated by brief personal anecdotes by the panelists. In a particularly memorable moment, Bush described his relationship to his wife, Columba Bush, a Mexican-American philanthropist. "My wife is from Mexico, she's a proud Mexican-American....

TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush said Monday that his wife misled U.S. Customs officials about $19,000 in new clothing and jewelry she brought into the country because she didn't want him to know how much she had spent on her five-day Paris shopping trip. Forced to explain his wife's actions at the Atlanta airport Thursday, Bush said Monday that the episode had disrupted their family life. His wife, Bush said, feels "horrible about this." "It was a difficult weekend at our house," Bush said. On Friday, the Bushes disclosed that Columba Bush had paid a $4,100 fine and was briefly...

Jeb Bush is deploying his "secret weapon" in a new video designed to appeal to Hispanic voters. A new video released by the campaign Monday shows Bush speaking in Spanish and his wife, Columba Bush, speaking in English in her most expansive comments to date on her husband's behalf. Entirely in Spanish, the candidate says: "The United States of America is a great country. Thanks to the people that come from all over the world, contributing to our economy and community. To me, Hispanic culture is very important and positive." His wife, who was born in Mexico, adds in English:...

In the oft-told tale of Jeb and Columba Bush’s early courtship days, there has tended to be a glaring omission – Columba’s late father, José Maria Garnica Rodríguez. When any mention of Garnica Rodriguez has come up, it more often than not has been in vague or disapproving terms. The father, the story goes, abandoned the family, leaving when Columba was a teenager and virtually falling off the face of the earth. But in interviews with Politico in Mexico, Garnica Rodriguez’s relatives said that it was Columba who essentially cut off communication with her father after she began her life...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Monday named a veteran of Mitt Romney and John McCain’s presidential campaigns as his campaign manager, a week before he makes his own bid official. Bush named Danny Diaz as campaign manager, a position that was widely expected to go to Dave Kochel, a Republican operative with experience in Iowa politics. Bush senior adviser Sally Bradshaw said in a statement that Kochel “can best position us for success by playing a key leadership role focusing on how Jeb wins primaries, caucuses, and ultimately the general election.” She said Diaz’s “skill at rapidly moving content...

He was born in Midland, Texas, and he spent a good bit of his boyhood in Houston, and he went to high school in Andover, Massachusetts, and to college in Austin, Texas, and he has lived for the last three and a half decades in Miami. But at the top of the list of the most important places in the world in the life of Jeb Bush is the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, and its conservative, old-world Catholic capital of León. León is why he proposed marriage in Spanish, why his three children are Mexican-American, why his favorite foods...

Her husband isn’t officially running, but Columba Bush is already driving with a Spanish-language bumper sticker supporting the former Florida governor for the White House in 2016. The Daily Mail grabbed photos this week of Columba entering and exiting a green Mini Cooper in Coral Gables, Fla., with an orange "Viva Jeb! Presidente 2016" sticker. The sticker is next to another for their son, George P. Bush, from his successful bid for Texas Land Commissioner last year.

Who is Jeb’s wife, what effect will she have on his campaign—and what effect will his campaign have on their marriage?Now and then in an otherwise unmemorable speech, Jeb Bush will drop a mention of his wife, like a sudden pop of color. At an event in Nevada this March, one of his first speeches of this campaign season, before a crowd of what The Washington Post called “everyday Americans,” Bush opened with a husband-still-in-thrall routine. His life, he said, can be divided into two parts: “b.c. and a.c.—before Columba and after Columba,” referring to Columba Garnica de Gallo, the...

EXCLUSIVE: Columba Bush's car sports bumper sticker declaring 'Viva Jeb!' and his campaign for 'Presidente 2016' (but he still won't say he's actually running) Jeb Bush has been coy about whether he will formally enter the 2016 presidential race. But his wife already has the bumper sticker. Columba Bush was photographed Tuesday in Coral Gables, Florida getting into her green Mini Cooper with a clearly visible Spanish-language message on the back-end. 'Viva Jeb! Presidente 2016,' it read. It's the first outward sign that Bush's presidential announcement is a certainty, and could come soon. The sticker includes Jeb's first name in...

Columba Bush, the wife of expected Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush, continued to increase her public profile this week with an op-ed on domestic violence in Iowa's biggest newspaper. Her Des Moines Register op-ed asked readers to offer their support for the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence, where Bush writes she spent "quality time" on Friday. "It was inspiring to learn from our domestic violence leaders about the transforming process that Iowa implemented to maximize limited financial resources while creating a regional-based comprehensive service delivery program for domestic violence survivors and their children," she wrote.

You can tell that campaign season is fully underway when Jeb Bush’s wife takes to social media for the first time ever – well before his campaign for president has even been officially announced. Columba Bush, originally from Mexico and fluent in Spanish, recently opened separate Twitter and Instagram accounts to begin the process of introducing herself to voters. Wives of presidential candidates are usually used as a way to soften their husbands’ public images and broaden their appeal to female voters. According to BuzzFeed, there’s another political strategy in place here: The Jeb Bush campaign wants to appeal to...

Columba Bush stepped more fully into public view in the past week, campaigning with her husband in Iowa on Saturday, attending a fundraiser yesterday in Miami and today penning an op/ed in the Des Moines Register in support of the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She also joined Twitter.

Columba Bush, the potential First Lady contender, has been quiet some four days into her debut on social media. The wife of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who is expected to announce that he’s running for president, launched Twitter and Instagram accounts on Friday, and sent out two tweets the first day and two the following day. But Sunday, Monday and early Tuesday have seen no posts.

Few political spouses in recent memory have been as wary of the spotlight as Columba Bush, Jeb's wife of 41 years. But her husband's presidential potential means the spotlight is about to find her. Now and then in an otherwise unmemorable speech, Jeb Bush will drop a mention of his wife, like a sudden pop of color. At an event in Nevada this March, one of his first speeches of this campaign season, before a crowd of what The Washington Post called “everyday Americans,” Bush opened with a husband-still-in-thrall routine. His life, he said, can be divided into two parts:...

Jeb Bush felt the welcoming embrace of Miami on Monday as he tried to put behind him a difficult week of campaigning without yet being a presidential candidate. His political action committee, Right to Rise, held a political fund-raiser in the overwhelmingly Hispanic, working-class suburb of Sweetwater, where the former Florida Republican governor was greeted as a old friend in need of a little TLC. "Aquí está la vieja guardia -- no tan vieja," Bush joked in Spanish after being introduced by former U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and his wife will be attending a fundraising event in Miami Monday evening. Columba Bush will join her husband at the Right to Rise PAC fundraiser at the Jorge Mas Canosa Youth Center. Congressman Lincoln Diaz Balart is also expected to attend.

In a sign of Jeb Bush’s broad Hispanic outreach, his intensely private wife, Columba Bush, slowly started to raise her profile Friday by opening her own Twitter and Instagram accounts. Columba Bush, using the handle @ColumbaBush, plans to reach out in English and Spanish to various segments of the nation’s Latino community, which has one of the highest rates of social-media use in the nation. -snip- “This is a really important first step. It’s beyond dispute that Hispanic voters are more and more important in each election, and we need to capture at least 40 percent of that vote,” said...

She will be tweeting and ‘gramming in English and Spanish, a source familiar with Columba Bush’s plans told BuzzFeed News. Family photos are coming. Jeb Bush’s campaign hasn’t been announced yet, but one of the routine parts of an expected candidacy is here: social media accounts from the spouse. “Privileged to meet @ICADV leaders while in IA with Jeb this weekend. Join me in supporting Domestic Violence prevention,” she tweeted after meeting with the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence. A source familiar with Columba Bush’s plans told BuzzFeed News she’s really excited to interact with people, and should Bush decide...

This week I was privileged to receive a personal letter from Columba Bush, the wife of former Florida Governor and presidential candidate hopeful Jeb Bush. The letter contained a personal wedding photo from 40 years ago. I was out of town for a couple of days, but my wife helpfully saved it for me. She did not, however, save the return envelope so I thought I would write this open letter in the hope that Columba (and Jeb) might read it. Dear Columba, Thanks for your recent (undated) personal letter and photo. You note that you “have been meaning to...

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...