Hillary Rodham Clinton is challenging Republican presidential prospect Jeb Bush on immigration.
It’s an issue that could help define the 2016 race for the White House as both parties court Hispanic voters.
Clinton charged this week that Republicans would create a “second-class status” by granting immigrants in the country illegally a pathway to legal status instead of citizenship.
The elevated focus on immigration is shining a new light on Republican presidential contenders – including past opponents of an immigration overhaul in Congress – who are now willing to allow millions of immigrants in the country illegally to stay.
Such a position is regarded as “amnesty” by the GOP’s tea party wing, yet it is quietly becoming the majority view in a 2016 Republican presidential class eager to attract Hispanic voters.
(AP)
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The GOP has never has a single position, so it can’t shift. And the “Tea party” never has been “pro” or “anti” on social issues, since its focus was always on public finance and its members are as divided as other Republicans. The AP article appears to be little more than left-wing propaganda rather than accurate news reporting.
While there is a “red meat” (nativist) wing of the Republicans that is anti-immigration, the equally important “Religious right” tends to be pro-immigration (see the Hispanics, in particular, as fellow social conservatives with similar values), and the “Country Club” (Wall Street) Republicans support liberal immigration in order to import cheap workers who double as avid consumers.