Former Florida governor, Jeb Bush, against path to citizenship

On Behalf of | Mar 13, 2013 | US Immigration Law |

The decisions that are made by this year’s congress members could affect the lives of immigrants and their families in a big way. Some political groups and congressmen say that the U.S. should change current immigration law to provide a path to citizenship for the millions of undocumented people living in the country. Others say that people who came into the country illegally should not be rewarded for their actions by being given U.S. citizenship. Still others seem unable to make up their mind what the federal government should do to address the problem.

Former Florida governor, Jeb Bush, appears to be in the third category. The republican originally supported immigration reform that would provide a way for an undocumented immigrant to eventually become a U.S. citizen. In fact, he even criticized former presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, for not being supportive of such a move.

Now Bush appears to have changed his mind and has come out in a new book as being against giving U.S. citizenship to people who broke the law to come here. This is in spite of the fact that he has a known record for being supportive of undocumented residents in the state of Florida. Instead, Bush says that immigrants who reside illegally here should be given a way to achieve legal residency, but denied citizenship.

It is unknown what the immigrant community has to say about the reverse of position the former governor has taken. What is clear is that it is difficult to know whether politicians are merely trying to win votes instead of doing what is right for the immigrants, whose lives depend on the decisions they make.

Source: The Miami Herald, “Jeb Bush reverses stance on immigration: No citizenship path for undocumented,” Marc Caputo, March 4, 2013

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