Jeb Bush: On 'Anchor Babies,' I Meant 'Asian People'

Also says people need to 'chill out' a little bit
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 25, 2015 3:59 AM CDT
Jeb Bush: 'Anchor Babies' Isn't Derogatory
Jeb Bush answers questions during a news conference yesterday at Palenque Grill in McAllen, Texas.   (Delcia Lopez/The Monitor via AP)

Jeb Bush is caught between the Democrats and Donald Trump on immigration issues and he's not finding it an easy place to be. He has been getting a hard time from the Clinton campaign for his use of the term "anchor babies" last week, and in a speech yesterday in the border town of McAllen, Texas, he urged people to "chill out" about the controversy, reports the Washington Post. "We need to take a step back and chill out a little bit as it relates to the political correctness, that somehow you have to be scolded every time you say something," he said during a campaign stop at a Mexican restaurant, insisting the term isn't derogatory and switching to Spanish to say that he is "proudly married to a Mexican-American" and his kids are Hispanic.

Bush explained that when he said "anchor babies," he was talking about "fraud" that is "more related to Asian people coming into our country, having children in that organized [effort], taking advantage of a noble concept, which is birthright citizenship," Politico reports. Bush described Trump's hardline immigration plan as "not grounded in conservative principles" and his campaign released a video yesterday describing it as "catastrophic," reports the Post. In response, Trump described the video as "boring" and told reporters that Bush is "doing so poorly in the polls that he is now starting to spend some of the money that his 'bosses,' special interests and lobbyists, have given him to attack me." (More Jeb Bush stories.)

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