Jeb Bush Speech Interrupted by Immigration Activists

Jeb Bush spoke at the USHCC Annual National Convention on Monday.

And noting that his view is “apparently somewhat out of the mainstream, temporarily, in my party”, Bush jabbed at his GOP counterparts – frontrunner Donald Trump, in particular – who have been aggressive in focusing nearly exclusively on border security. We don’t need to deport every person that’s in this country. That would cost hundreds of billions of dollars, that’s not a conservative plan. “The practical way of solving the problem of 12 million immigrants”.

Protesters wasted no time attacking Jeb Bush as he began a speech before the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Houston today.

The demonstrators held large signs, with one asking “Who is the real Jeb Bush?” – Bush was forced to try and placate the group. “I believe Dream Act kids should have a path to citizenship”, said Bush over the noise of the hecklers. “I’ll continue to be consistently for it irrespective of what the political ramifications of that are”. “It’s up to us to organize ourselves around them so that they do”.

Even Bush, whose wife is Mexican-American, hasn’t been immune from criticism. The U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce put out a statement Monday afternoon that was critical of the protesters.

Republican US presidential candidate businessman Donald Trump, left, speaks as former Florida governor and fellow candidate Jeb Bush reacts during the second official Republican presidential candidates debate of the 2016 USA presidential campaign at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., on September 16.

“He recognizes that”, he said.

“If you embrace a set of shared values, it shouldn’t matter if you have a Z at the end of your name or your accent might be different”, he added. I don’t want to create any more of the food fight.

“If one of the candidates is looking to “Make America Great Again” he should just look at the Latina entrepreneurs in this country”, Bush said.

He accused rivals of playing “the game of striking fear in people’s hearts” and singled out Trump for questioning his use of Spanish during a recent school visit.

Bush has emphasized his own family’s example – his wife is Mexican American and he describes his family as “bi-cultural” – and he has made it a central element of his campaign to reach out to Hispanic voters.

“It’s so sad that people don’t have any sense of what the immigration experience is about”, he said.

As with many such events, Bush was briefly heckled by immigration campaigners at the outset of the event.