Jeb Bush on Immigration: DREAMer Activist Clashes With GOP Candidate at Campaign Event
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush reacted "condescendingly" when a supporter of the DREAM Act approached the Republican presidential candidate at a rally over the weekend, the immigration-advocacy group America's Voice reported.
In a video posted to the organization's website, Bush appeared irritated when he noticed that his encounter with Erika Castro was being recorded on what appears to be a cell-phone camera.
"You want to make it formal so that you can pass it on to your websites?" the candidate asked as he invited the unidentified cameraman to approach.
The ensuing conversation between Bush and Castro, meanwhile, appeared somewhat curt.
"I am a DREAMer, and I want to know what you're planning on doing with DACA," Castro inquired in reference to the proposed Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, which would create a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children - and who are often referred to as "DREAMers."
"Same thing that I've always told you guys when you come to my events," the former Florida governor replied, adding that if he were to move into the White House, he would ask Congress to draw up legislation that would allow DREAMers to become naturalized U.S. citizens.
But "Bush spends as much time being condescending to Erika as he does giving his non-answer about what he would do about DACA," America's Voice commented.
In March, Bush had similarly assured a questioner at an Iowa rally that he supported the DREAMers' aspirations to gain citizenship.
"We have to give them priority to become citizens - but through a law, not by decree, which is what a Latin American dictator would do," he noted. "My position on this is completely public," the candidate said in reference to his book, titled "Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution."
Castro, for her part, has also tackled the DACA issue with Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, who promised that, if elected president, she would put in place a system for parents of DREAMers and others to avoid deportation, according to NPR.
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