clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Jeb Bush says unauthorized immigration is "an act of love"

Jeb Bush speaks at a Mitt Romney campaign rally in Miami, October 2012.
Jeb Bush speaks at a Mitt Romney campaign rally in Miami, October 2012.
Larry Marano/WireImage/Getty Images
Andrew Prokop is a senior politics correspondent at Vox, covering the White House, elections, and political scandals and investigations. He’s worked at Vox since the site’s launch in 2014, and before that, he worked as a research assistant at the New Yorker’s Washington, DC, bureau.

On Sunday, former Florida governor Jeb Bush called for compassion for unauthorized immigrants to the US, saying that they came to the US to provide for their families.

"I'm going to say this and it will be on tape, and so be it," Bush began, during a speech at his father's presidential library. Unauthorized immigrants, he said, "crossed the border because they had no other means to work to be able to provide for their family," he said. "Yes, they broke the law, but it's not a felony. It's an act of love … It shouldn't rile people up that people are actually coming to this country to provide for their families." You can watch his videotaped remarks at Fox News.