MIAMI: Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush set off a fury that served as a potent reminder of how difficult the immigration issue remains for his possible presidential ambitions and the Republican Party.
An early Republican establishment favorite, Bush has long urged his fellow Republicans to show more compassion for those who enter the country illegally. But when he described illegal immigration in an interview as an “act of love” by people hoping to provide for their families, the backlash from his own party was swift and stinging.
Rep. Raul Labrador accused Bush of “pandering.” Sen. Ted Cruz and House Speaker John Boehner said the country should enforce the “rule of law.” And conservative commentator Michelle Malkin created a new Twitter hashtag: (hash)CancelJebBush.
In a speech to an annual gathering of Connecticut Republicans, Bush noted the negative response to his remarks but said he sees no conflict between enforcing the law and “having some sensitivity to the immigrant experience.”
Some of the party’s most powerful insiders and financiers are concerned immigration could define the coming nominating contest in the way it did in 2012. Like Bush, Texas Gov. Rick Perry was jeered when he implied that his rivals were heartless if they opposed a law that lets some children of undocumented immigrants pay in-state tuition at public colleges.
The 2012 Republican nominee, Mitt Romney took a hard line and advocated “self-deportation” for those here illegally. He won just 27 percent of the Hispanic vote, the lowest portion for a Republican in 16 years.
“The worst thing that can happen to a political party is not for voters to decide they don’t like you,” said Alex Castellanos, a Republican consultant and former Romney adviser. “It’s for voters to decide you don’t like them, and that’s where the Republican Party is right now.”
The Republican National Committee has urged the party to embrace an immigration overhaul, but comprehensive legislation remains stalled in Congress. Action is unlikely in an election year with high stakes. All 435 House seats, and 36 in the Senate, are on state ballots.
Republicans need to gain only six Senate seats to win majority control from Democrats. The political calculus makes the party’s core base of voters critical, so House Republicans want to avoid an immigration fight that could alienate them. But some establishment Republicans say the delay threatens the long-term future of the party.
“It’s going to kill the Republican Party,” said Al Hoffman, a Republican megadonor who chaired George W. Bush’s presidential campaigns.
He and others argue the Republican Party needs a nominee with a “Nixon-goes-to-China mentality” – in which the party leader takes an audacious, if not popular, step – on issues such as immigration. They suggest that’s necessary in part to peel away some Hispanic voters from Democrats in 2016.
For Bush, the debate is personal. His wife, Columba, was born and grew up in Mexico. The two met while Bush was an exchange student there; she is now an American citizen.
In an interview with Fox News before an audience at the George Bush Presidential Library in Texas, Bush said immigrants who enter the country illegally should, in fact, pay a penalty. But he added that he viewed such a violation as “a different kind of crime.”
“Yes, they broke the law, but it’s not a felony,” he said. “It’s an act of love.”
Hispanics are a crucial voting bloc in an increasing number of swing-voting states, from Florida to Colorado to Nevada.-AP
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