Hillary Clinton truly
set the terms of the debate last week on immigration, leaving Jeb Bush with no choice but to embrace President Obama's immigration actions in order to survive in a potential general election match up.
In a pre-taped interview with Fox News, Bush has now reportedly told Megyn Kelly he wouldn't end Obama's immigration actions until immigration reform clears Congress. Michael C. Bender has the details:
In an interview scheduled to air Monday night on Fox News, Bush suggested that he would wait until a new law was in place before overturning Obama's actions.
Noting the political difficulty of repealing the orders, host Megyn Kelly asked Bush how he would go about undoing them. "Passing meaningful reform of immigration and make it part of it," Bush answered, according to a transcript of the interview. The interview will air in full on The Kelly File at 9 p.m.
Bush, who hasn't yet formally entered the presidential race, also defended his support for giving undocumented immigrants driver's licenses and their children in-state tuition, saying, "If you’ve been here for an extended period of time, you have no nexus to the country of your parents."
Bush has been critical of Obama's immigration actions, which could ultimately grant up to five million immigrant minors and their parents deportation relief. In February, he said Obama had "
overstepped his executive authority" with the programs known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA).
But Bush does not appear to have suggested during the interview that he would expand the immigration programs, something Hillary Clinton pledged to do last week if Congress fails to act.
Sen. Marco Rubio has been trying to have it both ways on DACA/DAPA, saying in February that the next president should not support the programs but clarifying last month that he wouldn't "immediately reverse" deportation relief for young undocumented immigrants.
"I wouldn't say that we would immediately reverse that one," Rubio said of DACA, but "it will have to come to an end at some point."
However, both Sens. Rubio and Ted Cruz
signed on to an
amicus brief filed Monday that argues the government "exceeded its prosecutorial discretion" by proposing to provide deportation relief through the two programs.
2:01 PM PT: UPDATE: Let the pretzel-twisting begin...
Huh. While Bush struggles with immigration issue, his PAC's anti-gay senior advisor, Jordan Sekulow, today signed amicus to end DACA & DAPA
— @JoeSudbay