Immigration News: Jeb Bush's Immigration Reform Plan Focuses on Minor Children, Not Older Children

By Michael Oleaga Aug 13 2015, 14:55 PM EDT

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush encountered trouble with the topic of immigration during the campaign trial.

During a town hall event in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Richard Carreon, an immigrant from the Philippines, asked the Republican presidential candidate about family reunification, specifically the process involving his adult sister who was separated from the family due to delays in the immigration system.

"There are hundreds, if not millions, of families that have been waiting on family members that they have petitioned for, legally, that have quite frankly have waited since your dad was president to come here," Carreon said. "When are they going to get their due justice?"

In his response, Bush said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is "broken" as well as the security at the southern border.

"I don't think necessarily by the way, and you might disagree with this, but I think family reunification is a value that Americans have, it's been a core of our immigration system, but we have a definition of family that's unique in the world," Bush said, noting the definition of "family" has been spouse and minor children.

"Part of the plan that I believe is that we would narrow the family petition to make sure that we expedite spouse and minor children, but then we create an economic strategy for the country by picking people that can make an immediate contribution and that would be in the norm of what immigration flows look like for the rest of the world and I think that would be the best way to go for our own country as well."

According to Bush, Canada has "more economic immigrants" than the U.S. despite population differences and wants to implement a similar strategy as the northern neighboring country.

Bush's strategy, however, did not ease Carreon's concerns about his adult sister since the former Florida governor's plan focuses on minors. Despite the response, Carreon, a registered Republican, maintained respect for the candidate. As the Los Angeles Times reported, demonstrators of the Black Lives Matter movement interrupted the event. The Bush campaign said the candidate had met with the activists prior to the event to discuss criminal justice reform.

Later, Bush was booed when he said he favored a pathway to earned legal status, which is a stance he has iterated including at the first Republican Party presidential debate.

Earlier this month, Bush revealed his six-point immigration plan. In regards to earned legal status, the "rigorous" path "would realistically and honestly address the status of the 11 million people here illegally today and protect against future illegal immigration. While passions run high on this issue, there is no rational plan to deport millions of people that the American people would support," Bush stated, noting such action would "disrupt" families and communities while costing taxpayers billions of dollars.

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