Gingrich willing to "take heat" for immigration stance

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Tuesday said the United States should not break up families of immigrants who entered the United States illegally and he was willing to "take the heat" from Republicans for deviating from his party's orthodoxy.

"I don't see how the party that says it's the party of the family is going to adopt an immigration policy which destroys families that have been here a quarter century," Gingrich said at the CNN debate on foreign policy in Washington, near the White House.

"And I'm prepared to take the heat for saying, let's be humane in enforcing the law without giving them citizenship but by finding a way to create legality so that they are not separated from their families," Gingrich said.

The former House speaker said recent immigrants should be sent home if they are found out, but "if you've been here 25 years and you got three kids and two grandkids, you've been paying taxes and obeying the law, you belong to a local church, I don't think we're going to separate you from your family, uproot you forcefully and kick you out."

Gingrich has been rising in the polls in recent weeks and those remarks are likely to draw more attention to his candidacy as he now sits at the front of the field with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. And they may not sit well with Republican primary voters who tend to be more conservative than the party as a whole.

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Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann was quick to label Gingrich's position an "amnesty" program, though Gingrich himself did not use that word.

"I don't agree that you would make 11 million workers legal, because that, in effect, is amnesty," Bachmann said.

When Gingrich responded to Bachmann by saying he "specifically did not say we'd make the 11 million people legal," she turned it back on him.

"If I understood correctly, I think the speaker just said that that would make 11 people -- 11 million people who are here illegally now legal," she said.

The Gingrich remarks brought to mind comments from Texas Gov. Rick Perry in September, when he said his fellow White House hopefuls are heartless for criticizing his support of providing government funds to help lower tuition rates for university students in his state who did not enter the United States legally.

Perry immediately backpedaled from his comments after facing sharp criticism for being "soft" on immigration. Perry had started to decline from his front-runner status before those comments, but his slide hastened after he made the remarks.

Gingrich has surpassed Romney in a number of national polls in recent days, in large part because of his strong debate performances. A poll released Tuesday from Quinnipiac University put Gingrich at 26 percent, atop the field. And he beat Romney 49 percent to 39 percent in a hypothetical head-to-head contest.

Gingrich is the latest Republican to challenge Romney's frontrunner status, but a CNN poll indicates there is still plenty of room for movement in the race: Only 27 percent of Republicans said they have definitely made up their minds.

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[Sienega444]

Don't trust Gingrich, he's a sell out. He'll be bought by lobbyists working for Libs like Soros and stinky Pelosi. Look at his record, he can't be trusted. Let's know who we vote for, we can't afford another mistake.

[jambo223]

Any Republican candidate that even mentions a word like "compassion" or "reasonable" will lose support. Republicans have displayed a fervent and well developed lack of humanity for years now and they want candidates that reflect this core principle. If the candidates want to win GOP voter support that must be very strong on torture techniques like water boarding; they must smile and cheer when a young person dies because they did not have the foresight to buy health care insurance; they must degenerate gay soldiers and most of all they must be very negative toward any person that is in this country without proper documentation. Fear, hatred, lack of generosity of spirit are the hallmarks of the modern Republican. Of course this goes hand in hand with a firm Christian faith.

[erzkarlaspern]

George W Bush came up with a proposal for Immigration Reform that was an effort to get both sides together. How are the immigrants going to get legal status and pay taxes if the government has a very small number of permits for Mexican and Central American workers who fulfull needs in many areas that US citizens are not filling? If they have been here for so many years, are decent citizens, and are contributing to the national well-being, then let's make it easier for them to be legal and pay the taxes that people are asking for. Businesses that cannot find sufficient number of US workers to fill the need should file with the govt. for the numbers of workers they need and get approval for guest workers. The question of "legal" is a phony since everyone that goes over the speed limit is "illegal". Everybody that gets a parking ticket is "illegal", so let's stop the blather. If US workers apply for a job, they should be the first considered,in all justice, and any job that favors a foreigner over a national should have to explain to the Dept of Labor why they did not hire the American! That should stop abuses against American workers. Hispanics are much more into family values in general and against such aberrations as abortion and homosexual "marriage", so they Should be more courted by Republicans, as GW Bush was intelligent enough to see. Obama has done nothing about helping legalize the Hispanic immigrants. Also, the Republican Party was originally the party of the majority of Blacks, but the party has become the home of ex-Dixiecrat racists who are anti-Hispanic and anti-Black. It is not secret that Frederick Douglas was a Republican and Republican President Eisenhower sent troops into Arkansas to enforce Integration in 1954. Wake up Republicans ! Thanks, Newt, for having the guts to put your face and words forward !

[alaskanpoet]

Newt may have botched the Tiffany bill
And almost slid down the campaign hill
But with each debate his words seem to match his white hair
As slowly with thought he expounds the ideas he wants to share
Our borders are not secure, porous as a sieve
People always crossing to find a better place to live
Children born here even if parents illegally crossed
Should not over a fence when parents caught be tossed
We are not ready to rfd the parents who by stealth or on the run
Or hiked the deserts under the broiling sun
Then wait until their American born children turn 18
To deport the partents from the American scene.
We can spend until the cows come home but we will never secure
For ever dollar spent here is maybe a better cure
Two spent to the children assimilate and melt into the pot
To become the Americans we have always, always sought.

[Lubricano]

This fat political junky will do or say anything to be able
to run for POTUS. I am a right leaning independent but I am so sick
of these political dope addicts like Gingrich, Dick Morris, Pelosi and others of both parties. And Barry is doing a bang up job of dividing this country with his class warefare divide and
conquer re-election efforts. If you are not sick of this current
adminstration and the pathetic Republican candidates You are not breathing. Voting for either is like hmmm do I want AIDS or Cancer.
We better come up with some better people to run this show or we are doomed. Gingrich vs Soeterro How bad can it get.

[tpm1944]

yep! until you view this then pass it on Not in Hawaii ! click on the link below---interesting! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwhKuunp8D8&feature=player_embedded watch and pass on to all you know

[SparkysMom]

Those jokers who sign a pledge not to raise taxes should be impeached. The job of representational government is to synthesize and sort a lot of information so each issue can be determined on its own merits. People who think it is this easy to turn off their thinking and just go with the crowd have absolutely no respect for the origins of this democracy. They should be fired asap. Since there is an election coming anyway, impeachment would probably be a waste of time and money. But, that is what each and every one of them deserves. Fire them! Hire people who will think and act on their own conscience.

[PourpaixPourpaix]

Seems like Newt has a decent, thoughtful position. Of course, airhead princesses like Bachmann will be all over his case with lies, such as exaggerating his statement into amnesty for all illegals. That woman is what we fellows call .... good for one thing and one thing only.

Newt makes sense ...... long-term illegals are relatively few in number. Can't argue with giving a break to those who work to support themselves and shown good citizenship (other than entering the country illegally). However, we've been here before and blew it. We previously granted amnesty but failed to mend the hole in the fence. It's time to fix the problem by making sure we can identify and remove illegal aliens, especially those who are prone to committing crime. Smart immigration policy can do that; a hole in the fence can't.

In Washington State, the Feds coughed up money to help fund our Basic Health program ..... health care assistance for the poor. But the feds demanded the state go through the rolls and throw out anyone who couldn't prove they are legitimately in America. Result #1: thousands were disenrolled. Result #2: thousands re-enrolled after the lawsuit started. We don't have the sense of a Congressman in a house of prostitution.

[arthanyel]

I am not going to vote for Newt, but not because oif this - THIS idea is brilliant, a good move for him and something we should adopt anyway.

Newt isn't saying we should give amnesty to illegals - he is saying exactly the opposite. We should recognize that our own economy benefits from the work of illegals, by keeping food prices down, but that it is wrong to pay government benefits to non-citizens. He is suggesting we just have a legal way for the "guest workers" to be here and work, that is specifically NOT a path to citizenship.

Bravo Newt. You're by far the most intelligent and articulate right wing extremist out there.

[arthanyel]

EmpireGeorge: The best ticket the Republicans can field from the current crop is a Romney-Gingrich ticket. We could argue which is the P and which the VP.That's a little like saying concrete dust is the best construction material to use as a dessert topping, but it is still true.

[james0tempe]

Newt drew a line in the sand where to get to the right of him you'd basically have to support the idea that Americans want a Stasi, and that we'd break up families in order to arrest and deport people who are contributing to society, essentially for the hell of doing it.

[jackpenn]

I think Newt has a lot of political knowledge from his experience working within the government, but from my understanding he received a lot of money (1.3 million dollars) from the collapsing Freddie Mac, as a consultant, and apparently didn't help them in anyway. I really haven't seen a Republican, who I would say would be a lot better than Obama, or could get both political parties to start agreeing on something to get the country back on track. I really don't think any of them are any more intelligent than Obama, and are they good leaders? This election will be very interesting to see how the majority of people in America will pick the next or the same person as president. They better start by convincing the people on how they will bring more jobs back to America.

[arthanyel]

Newt is very smart. So is Obama. I agree with you, however, that none of the Republican candidates are better than Obama - and with the way the Republicans have been acting in Congress, I don't want them to get any more leverage (in fact I think it would do the country a world of good if they lost the House).

But neither party is a good answer because they are both majority owned subsidiaries of the lobbyists and corporaitns, and we really need another option - but I don't see one on the horizon.

[hope4agape]

Last time Gingrich held a major US office the country had an unemployment and deficit problem . Took him less then four years to balance the budget while creating jobs.
Obama, at first I really thought he was Jimmy Carter II the worst us president . Obama was able to undo the camp david accords, which was the only thing Carter accomplished. So he's actually worse then Carter.
Unemployment records, Poverty level highest in history, Job creation (how do you count negatives), Inflation highest on record. Foreign policy , he managed to tick off all of our allies . Tough on Crime - Im not sure sending thousands of Guns to drug cartels in Mexico to commit murder counts as being tough on crime.

[vageorge]

Seriously I would like to know why CBS is ignoring Jon Huntsman. Huntsman won the debate easily with the most intelligent responses. The media appears to favor candidates that obama believes he can defeat. Is the media involved in support for lessor candidates so obama can win? If so they should be honest about it. It is a shame that the average citizen has such a hard time finding the truth. The media used to be the best source but it seems contaminated now with political favoritism and pay backs

[james0tempe]

Huntsman is being ignored simply because he does not have support of a sufficiently broad base of GOP voters to make him relevant to the election, at least not the ones coming up in a few weeks.

[PourpaixPourpaix]

Too bad, since Huntsman is the only GOP candidate I can see voting for. To someone who's middle of the road, the neo-extremists in the GOP might just as well be named Hitler or Stalin, for they resemble little of the true American values that I respect. Perhaps I am wrong, and the days of America being a decent place are gone. Too bad.