Jeb Bush discusses immigration on Uncommon Knowledge

Recorded by HooverInstitution | 1 May 2013

In an exclusive interview with Peter Robinson, former Florida governor Jeb Bush offers his outlook on immigration into the United States and discusses the policies he believes would improve the issue.

Below is the transcript and may not be 100% accurate.

Peter Robinson: You are intent ... on salting the immigration problem you made clear in this book immigration wars ... because you're eager ... it's easy to get the feeling reading this book that you're almost desperate ... for the Republican party to find some way to appeal to Hispanics ...

Hispanics you argue are socially conservative ... the religious ... the small business owners and all kinds of ways they are natural ... Republicans ... but ... there is some dissent ... within the party of among observers ... so what are you due at the journalist other Mattel who notes the high ... of welfare ... high proportion of Hispanics were in welfare….

For example fall ... far from exercising a break and the erosion of traditional values the growing Hispanic population ... will provide the impetus for more ... government alternatives ... to personally responsible ... public and party on the other being weary of Hispanics now ... rushing to embrace the government.

Jeb Bush: The reason why we wrote this book was from a policy point in our political point of view but the political argument of that ... we should ... not take advantage of the immigrant heritage for sustained economic growth that benefits everybody ...to me is ludicrous... number one.

Number two ... the idea that up ... to ... it is Heather's argument is this ... correct ... then I guess it's over ... because the fastest growing demographic group in America ... not just of the party about eleven million undocumented people but the people are already here the people that can begin to participate become citizens and then ... Mr. boat and then vote ... by far away the largest and fastest growing ... new demographic or Latino voters and so… if the argument is that all is lost ... all is lost and I just completely disagree with that I think that we ... you know politics is a dynamic business you have to ... persuade ... and ... all I know is for my own Pursell experience of the last time I ran… I got the majority of the Democratic Hispanic voters in the form of support ... about sixty percent agorepresenting...

Peter Robinson: This is very important piece of your records the law to ask about it to be the chance to ... play out explicitly ... you did not ... merely when the Cuban vote Cubans from ... most Oracle reasons tend to be conservative and Republican ... losing your country economists will do that ... you did not just when the Cannonball…

Jeb Bush: Now that's right and it was because ... governors can lead in this regard…governors can ... appoint people that share their views in the in the judicary ... I have appoint one of the first Latino support Supreme Court justice ... I had men and women of ... the great diversity that we're conservative worked in my administration ...

Every chance I had I've tried to ... embrace the idea that ... that everybody ought to be able to served and in doing so the newly ... emerging groups were the ones that were the most of the benefit of the most ... and in terms of policies ... and in terms of advocacy in terms of being in and do when inside the communities ... you can persuade people ... and in all it's now last I mean it's just ... find it ... amazing ... that people don't see ... how all of ... you know you can move the needle in a different direction you can change the course that ... countries are on or politics is on ... and to just surrender and say all is lost I think guarantees and if you keep sending signals.We don't want you to be no course we want your vote ... we don’t want you to be on our team…you can join our club. They think people are goanna do…

Peter Robinson: We want your vote but we wish you want here…

Jeb Bush:Yeah...it's like the girl in the grass...

Peter Robinson: Right…right…

Jeb Bush: So let me give you the best example of Canary in the coal mine ... are necessary Latino voters of the Asian American workers ... they've supported President Obama at a higher percentage than one teams ... they are their higher income than the median in the country ... they have more intact families ... they have their higher percentage of college educated there more entrepreneurial ... it would be if that Martian came down again that Martian would say this must be a Republican group ... seventy five twenty three ... it's a reason why Mitt Romney lost urgent ... Asians ... I'm looking it's ... there's a there's something going on here that goes beyond just kind of the the easy ... analysis ... you know from ... from the outside ...

Peter Robinson: on ... immigration wars ... brief ... written book about it… this is a ... good fit book ... well ... and as he did reduce an ox globally IQ here and then you wanted ... you propose you include bullet proposal is ... shifting the basis of immigration from family ... relationships too ... to to to the to the nation's economic means…

Jeb Bush: Is it surprising that right now about thirteen percent of all immigrants that come legally come ... for economic purposes H1 B visa is the very tiny ... guest worker programs we have ... and seventy five percent say come ... for a ... petition by family members... so today in America of the law which ... it was changing in the nineteen sixties ... I think it's an old law so long

But is now had this impact of what's called chain migration where you can claim ... your elder parents your brother your adult brothers and sisters ... your spell so obviously in your minor children ... in the cascading effect of this now has crowded out all the forms of immigration... what we propose was to narrow that down to spell some minor children ... to create a legal category ... that ... allow for people to come ... regular order if you will ... and then to dramatically expand the economic bases of both in the high-end as well as a guest worker program to deal with the soup significant shortages ... of that exist that are retarding the economic growth that we need ... it mirrors in many ways what has been proposed in the Senate and what's being discussed in the house ...