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NAPLES, FL -- Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich defended his immigration policy after days of criticism from other GOP contenders – reiterating that he does not support amnesty -- on Friday night before his largest crowd yet on the campaign trail.
Erik Kellar/AP
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich addresses a town hall meeting Friday at the Naples Hilton in Naples, Fla.
"I am not for amnesty for anyone. I am not for a path to citizenship for anybody who got here illegally," Gingrich told the crowd of roughly 750 people, many of whom were forced to stand in the hallway. "But I am for a path to legality for those people whose ties are so deeply into America that it would truly be tragic to try and rip their family apart."
The former House speaker, who is seen as one of the front-runners for the GOP nomination, has been taking some heat on his stance on immigration since Tuesday’s debate. After the debate some of his Republican rivals – Michele Bachmann and Mitt Romney – have accused Gingrich of supporting amnesty, which the speaker said Friday night was misinformed.
"It speaks badly of any candidate who would deliberately repeat something which they know is not true," Gingrich told the packed crowd inside a Naples Hilton ballroom. Later, he added, "Ironically, in the Reagan Library debate I think most of them actually agreed with me," on my immigration policy.
Gingrich wants to model his immigration plan for illegals already in the country on the WWII model of the Selective Service System program, which allowed local communities to decide who would be drafted for war. He noted that the program "really tried to take general policy and give it a human face."
"I think the vast majority [of illegal immigrants] will go home and should go home and then should reapply. I do not think anybody should be eligible for citizenship," the former speaker said to loud applause in Southwest Florida with his wife, Callista, sitting in the front row of the audience. "I am suggesting a certification of legality with no right to vote and no right to become an American citizen unless they go home and apply through the regular procedures back home and get in line behind everybody else who has obeyed the law and stayed back there."
Gingrich has been rapidly rising in the polls recently despite questions raised about his ties with Freddie Mac and now on his policy on illegal immigrants. Back in the summer months, many Republicans and pundits wrote off the former speaker after more than a dozen of his staff quit unexpectedly.
"Remember, I was supposed to be dead in June or July," Gingrich said. "One side of that is that for a long period of time, they didn’t pay any attention to me."
Gingrich and his wife are scheduled to sign books Saturday morning in Naples.
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mccain already did the $50 dollar lettuce tripe.growers estimate not using illegals would raise prices only 10% on produce....weigh that against the $10.5 billion dollars cost to Californians...the cost of importing millions of impoverished people,we have our own poor. the cost of water,commodities ,the drain on resources to provide..losses of tens of billions of dollars sent back to Mexico every year ,gone from our economy..they are hiding the cost of illegals aliens and selling out this country....the cities are dirty and dangerous they need cleaned up ,too many gangs and too much violence..40 million illegals are here, a small fraction work as migrants...the are a horde of locusts , consuming all the assets of this country .they need to be DEPORTED NOW...let them build their own country,they have rich resources.....
Ja Vol, Mein Herr!
I think the vast majority [of illegal immigrants] will go home and should go home and then should reapply. I do not think anybody should be eligible for citizenship," the former speaker said to loud applause in Southwest Florida with his wife, Callista, sitting in the front row of the audience. "I am suggesting a certification of legality with no right to vote and no right to become an American citizen unless they go home and apply through the regular procedures back home and get in line behind everybody else who has obeyed the law and stayed back there."
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Nwet and the folks on this board and the meeting that agree with him are on solid ground except for one very important point. No administration has ever given ICE the resources needed to process the applications within a reasonable time. I am a retired federal employee and know the mountains of applications that are in ICE depositories. Give ICE the resources to (1) catch up on these applications and (2) keep current and the problem is largely solved.
"Newt, you were voted into Congress to serve, not profit from the Wall Street crooks."
how bout them Mexicans newt
Re illegals cost CA 10 Billion ...
California Agricultural Production Statistics
California remained the No. 1 state in cash farm receipts in 2010, with $37.5 billion in revenue. The state accounted for 16 percent of national receipts for crops, and 7 percent of the U.S. revenue for livestock and livestock products.
California's agricultural abundance includes more than 400 commodities. The state produces nearly half of U.S.-grown fruits, nuts and vegetables. Across the nation, U.S. consumers regularly purchase several crops produced solely in California.
California is home to some of the most productive counties in the nation. According to the 2007 Census of Agriculture�s ranking of market value of agricultural products sold, nine of the nation's top 10 producing counties are in California. The sales of these nine counties accounted for 6.6 percent of the nation's total sales value.
you mean illegals help with billions in California
aww the Nice republican christian have found Jesus..jesus loves to hear a liar at work
Re illegals cost CA 10 Billion ...
California Agricultural Production Statistics
California remained the No. 1 state in cash farm receipts in 2010, with $37.5 billion in revenue. The state accounted for 16 percent of national receipts for crops, and 7 percent of the U.S. revenue for livestock and livestock products.
California's agricultural abundance includes more than 400 commodities. The state produces nearly half of U.S.-grown fruits, nuts and vegetables. Across the nation, U.S. consumers regularly purchase several crops produced solely in California.
California is home to some of the most productive counties in the nation. According to the 2007 Census of Agriculture�s ranking of market value of agricultural products sold, nine of the nation's top 10 producing counties are in California. The sales of these nine counties accounted for 6.6 percent of the nation's total sales value.
Mexican citizens dont have much loyalty and pride in their own country or they would stay there and try and change it.
like when they hire a Mexican president..and he runs off with all the money to another country..and we tax payers have to bail out Mexico ,,oh i know what you mean dummy
and you think the people who are slaves are the ones with no pride..its stock home syndrome.its in every crook look at the GOP
who else is going to rub newt's back when he is tried it sure wont be his wife..oh i meant tired
funny thing even the chines restaurants have Mexicans cooking for them..you Darn china slave masters your just like the GOP.
why are Mexicans cooking Italian food here in America..darn old Mexicans with there no pride self low paying selves huh tea trash
really? shut up azzhole
how come Mexicans work at slaughter houses in America..oh because the ones who hire them want them..like the 1percenters
how come the GOP..don't make a law for CEO'S to serve prison time . instead they make a law for the one who drives them over here..to serve prison time
Mexicans take pride in there work its the GOP that don't have pride in paying them
I think you republican need Palin in the spot light again..so the media can put all there resources looking and laughing at her..not your other clowns
you think?? Now that's the funniest one ALL DAY!!
sounds like obamas plan.
Who the hell do you think is gonna PAY to send illegals back? Who's gonna PAY to build fences and guard the borders? The middle class of course.
Republicans need to SHUT up about everything except the TwO things they're REALLY afraid of: taxing the rich and REAL job creation.
Well a smart person would suggest putting troops on the border
1. we are under a contract to pay them until their term is up, so we pay them regardless.
2. a permanent wall may not be the best solution for long term relations
3. Obama is bringing them home anyway so we create a human wall.
I'll pay my share to send them back and build fences. I don't think there are as many liberals out there as you would have us think, just a bunch of shrill ones. STFU.
If Congress passes Mandatory E-Verify legislation such as the The Legal Workforce Act (H.R.2885), without jobs and a source of income illegals will begin self-deporting themselves.
Newt is trying to sink his own campaign he never cared about illegals and probably never will.Unless he needs one to mow his lawn or clean his toilet.he seeks only to sell another moron a book or give him access to his brilliant mind.Which by the way is fraud clear and simple.He really doesn't want to be president.Nor is he qualified to be president.He truly believes you never give a sucker an even break.
Newt just got my vote. I have been saying forever that I would send anyone back if their first act on our soil was to break our laws. They need to get in line behind those that respect the laws. We've got enough crooks here, let in those that respect the law. Amnesty shamnesty.
Well, Newt obviously doesn't know what he is talking about. Perhaps he ought to do a little research before he opens his mouth.
Illegal immigrants can't "re-apply" - first of all, they never applied in the first place, so forget the "re" part.
Secondly, the reason that most of them are here illegally in the first place is that they would not be able to come and work legally even if they applied. You have to have money to come in, or have a needed skill (and picking tomatoes is not one of them).
Thirdly, it is very expensive now to apply to immigrate. Those who are here illegally are usually rather poor to start with and don't have the money to pay for the application nor for the necessary police checks (and they are mostly from countries where you would have to bribe the cops for the proper police papers, even if you had never been arrested before), to say nothing of the cost of the required extensive medical check, which cost my foreign-born husband over $350 to have done over 7 years ago. In addition, you must show that you have enough money to live on for two years at US poverty levels, which is a lot of money for most people from poor countries (it is even a lot to have available on hand for most Americans).
And, unless you are being sponsored by an immediate relative who is already a legal resident or a citizen, you must speak passable English. I think we all know that many of those in the country illegally do NOT speak English.
C'mon, Newt, a would-be president ought to check on things before he talks about them.
Homesick Yank said:
Illegal immigrants can't "re-apply" - first of all, they never applied in the first place, so forget the "re" part.
Yes, they have. Let's take Mexico, for example. In 2010, the ICE was just getting to petitions filed by Mexican immigrants in 1994. That's a wait of 16 years. These are people who have come here legally, paid the fees, pay taxes, and work. While they waitied for ICE to get to their applications they've had children, established ties to the community, have become members of society.
What Gingrich is proposing is that those who have been waiting for 16 years (or more--you think ICE never loses paperwork?) should go back to their home country and reapply. Which means paying another set of fees and waiting another 16 years for ICE to get to their applications. A lot of these people are going to be dead by the time ICE gets to their applications a second time. And that means there are going to be children left without parents as their parents go back and 'reapply' again--those children will have their own children by the time the parents can legally come back in to see those kids and grandkids.
Depending on how this theory would be applied, that would me me--a legally (internationally) adopted infant of US citizen parents would have to go back to the country I came from and reapply--ICE lost my paperwork 18 years after I was adopted and decided that made me 'illegal' and tried to deport me--this means I would have to re-apply. Now that right there is problematic--I was an abandoned baby with no birth certificate (and therefore, no legal parents and no home country) in a country that doesn't value girls so I wasn't a citizen in that country. If ICE were to deport me, where would I go to wait (it would be a wait of some 5-10 years) while I re-applied?
Eric-913730: "It shouldn't take between 5 and 10 years to become a citizen."
Why?
Eric & jrdrop:
Let's take Mexico for example. In 2010 ICE was just getting to applications filed by Mexican immigrants in 1996, so that's a wait of 16 years. These people came here legally, paid all the fees, filed all the paperwork, and waited. And waited. And while they waited they put down roots, had a couple of kids because they had faith that eventually their applications would be looked at, and waited some more.
What Gingrich is saying is that those people who have waited for 16 years should go back and re-apply to come back in. Which means that they would have to pay another set of fees (much higher than what they paid before because prices were a bit lower 16 years ago!) and wait another 16 years to come back in. By the time ICE got around to their applications again the children they left behind here would have had their own kids! Why should THEY be penalized because ICE took too long to get to their paperwork?
The way I see it, ICE needs to get caught up on their paperwork.
Amanda, your post does not explain why the process to become an United States citizen should be sped up.
Ship them all home, let them reapply, then turn them down.
ICE includes in their definition of 'illegal' children adopted by legal American citizens who were provided falsified adoption papers so the crooked agency could pocket the money, and they include children who were trafficked in so legal US citizen pedophiles can make child porn. Some of these children are as young as 18 months. How do you ship them back when in some cases there's no documentation saying where they are from and they don't even know how to talk yet? Where's the justice in deporting a raped, traumatized child back to a country s/he may not even remember? How do you turn down a reapplication for an adoptive parent to re-adopt the child they have already legally adopted here in the US?
But something has to be done in addition to the hate-hispanics program for mr grover & the gop. For example in alabama. Due to harsh treatment of people who don't have papers, they put the head of mercedes who was going to look at the new auto plant, in jail.
2 faced.....
We should not disrupt these families! They should take them all with them when told to return to their native country.