Newt Gingrich carefully navigated the immigration minefield this evening, noting that he support a red card program for children of illegal immigrants to work in America, without giving them citizenship. Gingrich also added that he liked the part of the DREAM act that would allow children of illegal immigrants to serve in the military.
Bachmann jumped on Gingrich’s comments, suggesting that it sounded like the former speaker wanted to help illegal immigrants become legal.
Recommended Stories
Mitt Romney stepped in to further criticize Gingrich on his immigration, criticizing “magnets” that draw illegal immigrant across the border.
Gingrich doubled down on his remarks, with an emotional appeal to immigration critics.
“I do not believe that the people of the United States are going to take people who have been here a quarter century, who have children and grandchildren, who are members of the community, who may have done something 25 years ago, and separate them from their families and expel them,” he said.
Gingrich added that he would be willing to “take the heat” from critics in order to find create legality for illegal immigrants so that they would not be separated from their families.
Gingrich’s argument was remarkably similar to Perry’s “have a heart” moment when he tried to defend a Texas plan to give children of illegal immigrants tuition benefits, but was it enough to withstand Romney’s tough rhetoric?
