The Daily Caller — Anyone who has ever used the term “Shamnesty” — or, more likely, “SHAMNESTY!!!!” — is going to hate the likely 2016 GOP presidential field. All of it.
The immigration reform debate centers around many issues, but probably none is more explosive than what should be done about the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants currently residing in the United States. The loudest critics of comprehensive immigration reform in the Republican Party demand that there be no “amnesty,” which they define as any pathway to normalizing the immigration statuses of America’s illegal population, no matter whether those illegals would be forced to pay a financial penalty or even prevented from gaining citizenship.
Yet, despite the issue garnering so much ink, the reality is every major candidate supports an immigration policy that includes an “amnesty,” at least as defined by the GOP’s most ardent and vocal immigration hawks.
Much has been made of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s support for a pathway to citizenship for most of the illegal immigrants currently residing in the United States. But conservative grassroots stalwarts like Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz also envision some type of normalization for illegals living in the country.
Cruz has said he would support ultimately legalizing most of the undocumented immigrants in the country, though without providing a pathway to citizenship.
“After ensuring border security, then I would normalize the status of the 11 million undocumented citizens so they can join the workforce and pay taxes,” he wrote in a Washington Times column in 2013.
“Most of these undocumented immigrants are poor and may not be able to ever pay ten years of back payroll taxes,” he added. “I would be willing to forego the fines and back taxes in exchange for a longer and significant time period before these folks are eligible to enter into the green card line.”
Of course, most GOP contenders who support an ultimate pathway to citizenship, or at least a process of normalization, condition their support on things like further securing America’s Southern border and making illegal immigrants pay a financial penalty. But nearly all support the general principle: most of the 11 million illegal immigrants who violated America’s laws in making their way into the country should be allowed to stay and work in the country so long as they haven’t committed any further crimes.
“My sense is I don’t like the idea of citizenship when people jump the line, [but] we may have to do it,” he said. “It may be a laborious and tough process. I would never say we would never do it. … At the end of the day it may be necessary.”
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is a less reluctant supporter of a pathway to citizenship.
“Once the border is secure, and not before, we should provide an opportunity for those who came here illegally seeking to work for a better life to gain legal status rather quickly, if and only if they are willing to do all that is required,” he wrote in National Review in 2013. “We should deport immediately those who engage in criminal activity. We should bar those seeking public assistance from receiving welfare or unemployment benefits for a substantial period of time.”
He continued: “As for a pathway to citizenship: For folks who came here illegally but are willing to gain proficiency in English, pay a fine, and demonstrate a willingness to assimilate, we should require them to work here and pay taxes for a substantial period of time after obtaining legal status before they have the opportunity to begin the process of applying for U.S. citizenship.”
Mike Huckabee, who as Arkansas governor supported legislation that would have provided in-state tuition to illegal immigrants, has recently been most vocal about not punishing illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. by their parents as children. But though the immigration plan he ran on in the 2008 GOP primary did not provide for a pathway to legalization for undocumented immigrants, in 2013 he hinted he would support a pathway to some type of legalization for a larger population of illegals residing in the United States.
“I do think there should be a way that people who have been here for a while, who have lived decent clean lives like our ancestors did, can have a path to be able to work,” he told The Christian Post in 2013.
