Former Florida governor and possible 2016 Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush says he would have no qualms about pursuing policies to enable more immigrants to legally come to the United States. Bush made the comments in an interview with a Miami-based NBC affiliate on Tuesday, not long after his announcement that he intends to explore the possibility of running for president.
“You’ve gotta protect the borders, enforce the law, be respectful of the rule of law, and at the same time be able to encourage young, aspirational people to come to our country,” Bush declared. “It’s a win-win. I have no problems advancing that idea.” Bush did admit, however, that he is unsure about how much support such a position would receive from the conservative base of the Republican party.
Bush is not alone in the ranks of the Republicans in calling for some immigration policies in the United States to be expanded, with Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell also recently declaring that more H-1B US visas are needed so that companies have greater flexibility in hiring high-skilled overseas workers to come to the United States.
Bush has also made it clear that he is very much against the decision taken by President Obama to use his executive authority to enact immigration reform, blasting it as an “abuse of power” on his Twitter feed and insisting that bipartisan comprehensive reform passed by Congress is the only way such legislation should be implemented.