Former President George W. Bush urged Congress to do away with “harsh rhetoric about immigration” as he pledged support for a pathway to citizenship earlier in the week.
“I do want to say to Congress, ‘Please put aside all the harsh rhetoric about immigration. Please put aside trying to score political points on either side,'” he told CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell in a taped interview released on Sunday. “I hope I can help set a tone that is more respectful about the immigrant, which may lead to reform of the system.”
Bush, who said one of his greatest regrets during his eight years in office was not passing migrant reform, added that the immigration debate is plagued with “fear.”
“The problem with the immigration debate is that someone can create a lot of fear — ‘They’re coming after you’ — but it’s a nation that is willing to accept the refugee or the harmed or the frightened,” he told O’Donnell. “To me, it is a great nation, and we are a great nation.”
GEORGE W. BUSH CALLS FOR AMNESTY FOR MILLIONS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
“I campaigned on immigration reform,” he continued. “I made it abundantly clear to the voters that this is something I intended to do.”
Bush’s comments come around the same time as the release of his new book, Out of Many, One: Portraits of America’s Immigrants, a hardcover featuring his own oil paintings, and an op-ed he wrote for the Washington Post.
In Saturday’s op-ed, Bush expressed support for widespread amnesty for illegal immigrants brought to the country as children.
“Americans who favor a path to citizenship for those brought here as children, known as ‘dreamers,’ are not advocating open borders,” the former president wrote.
Bush pointed to former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, arguing that DACA children were “fundamentally American” and that the United States has been the only home they’ve ever known.
“They ought not be punished for choices made by their parents,” Bush said.
When asked if he’d lobby for a pathway to citizenship to his GOP colleagues, he responded, “Well, I am right now. … Whether my own party listens to me or not [is] another question.”
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His comments follow a wave of bipartisan backlash for President Joe Biden’s handling of the unprecedented surge at the U.S.-Mexico border. Authorities continue to nab record numbers of unaccompanied children as top brass in the administration struggles to open adequate housing for the influx.
