WASHINGTON – Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Sunday that breaking immigration law often is an “act of love,” staking out the softest stance on illegal immigration of any potential 2016 Republican candidate for president.
Bush said that most people who sneak across the border do it “because they couldn’t come legally,” adding that they often do it to keep their families intact while seeking opportunity in the United States.
“Yes, they broke the law, but it’s not a felony. It’s an act of love,” Bush told Fox News host Shannon Bream at a town hall-style event at the George Bush Presidential Library Center.
“I honestly think that that is a different kind of crime that there should be a price paid, but it shouldn’t rile people up that people are actually coming to this country to provide for their families,” he said.
The event was part of festivities marking the 25th anniversary of his father’s presidency.
“Yes, they broke the law, but it’s not a felony. It’s an act of love.”
Bush, who is considered a strong potential contender for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, is the son of former President George H.W. Bush and the brother of former President George W. Bush.
Bush said he supported laws that crack down on people overstaying visas, adding that those types of measures would “restore people’s confidence” in the immigration system.
“A great country ought to know where those folks are and politely ask them to leave,” he said.
Bush said he would make a decision on whether to run for president by the end of the year.
He said that campaign politics are “pretty crazy,” joking that candidates are consumed by plotting how to “win the Muscatine pork roast straw poll.”
The final decision, Bush said, would be based on whether he believed a candidate could “run with a hopeful, optimistic message, hopefully with enough detail to give people a sense that it’s not just idle words and not get back into the vortex of the mud fight.”
“In my case, that means can one do it joyfully without being tied to all the convention of the here and now?” he said.