Jeb Bush: America will decline without immigrants
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told religious conservatives Friday that the future of the nation’s economy depends upon immigrants in part because they “are more fertile” and create more businesses than native-born Americans.
Bush, thought to be weighing a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, said that immigrants are particularly important to helping create more taxpayers to fund the safety net for the retiring baby boomer generation.
“Immigrants are more fertile, and they love families,” Bush said, adding, “Immigrants create far more businesses than native-born Americans over the last 20 years.”
He was met with silence by those attending his speech during the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual conference. Former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed founded the group.
A spokesman said Bush meant that immigrants, Hispanics in particular, have larger families and more children.
Following painful election losses last fall driven by the Hispanic vote, Republican leaders, including Bush, brother of former President George W. Bush, have called on the GOP to embrace immigration reform. However, some conservatives have branded the effort “amnesty” and called for rejection of a pathway to citizenship for immigrants in the U.S. illegally.
Foreign-born mothers in the U.S. typically have more children than women born in the United States. The National Center for Health Statistics found that the birth rate for foreign-born women was nearly 50 percent higher.
Bush, in his speech, said that before being granted legal status, immigrants in the country illegally should pay a fine, learn English and be blocked from receiving welfare benefits.
He said the nation must allow more immigrants “to pursue their dreams in our country with a vengeance to create more opportunities for all of us.”
“If we don’t do it, we will be in decline,” he said.
“They bring a younger population,” Bush added. “Immigrants create an engine of economic prosperity.”
His speech contrasted with that of another possible 2016 Republican presidential hopeful, Michelle Bachmann. ABC News quoted her as warning the conservative gathering that giving undocumented immigrants legal status will “cost a fortune.”
Bush and Bachmann were among several rising Republicans attending the event, including Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida and Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, last year’s GOP vice-presidential nominee. But there was one notable now-show: Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey.
Christie skipped the Faith and Freedom Coalition gathering to appear Friday in Chicago with former President Bill Clinton, who was holding a Clinton Global Initiative America event entitled “Cooperation and Collaboration: A Conversation on Leadership.”
The Republican leader of a Democratic-majority state, Christie, who has also made repeated appearances with President Barack Obama as they worked together on his state’s recovery from Superstorm Sandy, is pitching himself as a pragmatic, bipartisan leader as he seeks a second term as governor this fall.
“Chris Christie is dangerously close to sending conservative Republicans a clear message that he doesn’t care about their thoughts or views,” said Republican operative Michael Dennehy, a veteran of presidential politics.
Christie spokesman Colin Reed said the Clinton event “presented a platform for Gov. Christie to discuss post-Sandy economic recovery, rebuilding and the kind of bipartisan problem solving that was needed to help New Jersey after its greatest natural disaster.”
More Stories
The Latest
