Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Friday said that giving illegal immigrants a pathway to "earned legal status" is a "rational, thoughtful" way to manage the 11 million illegal immigrants currently living in the United States.
Speaking at the New England Council's "Politics and Eggs" breakfast, the likely 2016 hopeful proposed giving illegal immigrants provisional work permits once they paid taxes and fines. Bush said they would also be granted legal status so that they could "earn over an extended period of time,"
Breitbart reported.
Bush's comments on immigration have been a subject of controversy in the past.
Last year, Bush said immigrants who come to the United States to provide for their families are not committing a felony but an
"act of love."
"I'm going to say this, and it will be on tape and so be it," Bush said in an interview with Fox News at the time.
"The way I look at this is someone who comes to our country because they couldn't come legally ... and they crossed the border because they had no other means to work, to be able to provide for their family, yes, they broke the law, but it's not a felony.
"It's an act of love, it's an act of commitment to your family."
Bush came under heavy fire from conservatives for those comments but stood by them.
"The simple fact is, there is no conflict between enforcing our laws, believing in the rule of law and having some
sensitivity to the immigrant experience, which is part of who we are as a country."
Bush had also urged House Republicans to take up the Senate's comprehensive immigration reform bill that passed in 2013, which would have given a pathway to citizenship for America's illegal immigrant population.
During his appearance Friday, Bush also said that more immigrants were needed to "work in our farms" and "deal with shortages that are chronic" in jobs that, he said, Americans refuse to do.
At the same time, he said, the United States needs to secure its borders and "deal with the 40 percent of illegal immigrants that come with a legal visa and stay."
Bush also expressed his support for the E-Verify system, Breitbart reported.