Former President Bush Questions Vote-Seeking Impetus for Immigration Reform
In an interview with the Huffington Post, former President George W. Bush questioned pursuing immigration reform based on political motives. During his presidency, Bush had actively pushed for amnesty-based immigration reform but did not primarily sell it as a political imperative.
Huffington Post reporter Jon Ward suggested that Bush’s comments were not critical of the GOP but intended as a “warning about the party's mad dash for immigration reform.” After the 2012 election, many pro-amnesty Republican groups and political consultants started promoting amnesty-based immigration reform as being essential to the future of the Republican Party. Although illegal aliens from across the globe reside in the U.S., they focused in particular on the need to legalize Hispanic illegal aliens in order to win the votes of a growing demographic group.
Bush told Ward, "I think the atmosphere, unlike when I tried it, is better, maybe for the wrong reason. The right reason is it's important to reform a broken system. I'm not sure a right reason is that in so doing we win votes. I mean when you do the right thing, I think you win votes, as opposed to doing something that's the right thing to win votes.”
Seven amnesties had preceded Bush’s presidency but he revived the concept of amnesty-based immigration reform in 2004. In 2006, he gave the first-ever primetime presidential address on immigration in an effort to win public support, and congressional votes, for his amnesty plan.
A so-called comprehensive immigration reform bill passed the Senate in 2006 but the Republican-controlled House refused to take up the measure. The House, which had passed an enforcement-only immigration reform bill in late 2005, was not inclined to consider amnesty-based immigration reform.
In 2007, at Bush’s continued urging, amnesty-promoters in the Senate again pushed two all-encompassing bills that were similar to S. 744, the bill now under consideration in the Senate. But Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) could not generate 60 votes to cut off debate in the “cloture” vote before final passage. That shut down Bush’s final bid for comprehensive amnesty legislation.
Breitbart News obtained comments on the Huffington Post article from former Bush White House press secretary Dana Perino, who now co-hosts The Five on Fox News. She said that Bush “long ago was for immigration reform and he put a stake in the sand in 2007. Sometimes debates take a long time to air themselves out - that's happening now and there's a long way from this bill to a signed law.”
For more information, read the Huffington Post article or the Breitbart article.