Debate Shows Republican Schism on Immigration

Rarely has the Re­pub­lic­an Party’s split on im­mig­ra­tion been as clear as Tues­day night, when the GOP’s high-pro­file can­did­ates clashed over what to do about mil­lions of un­doc­u­mented im­mig­rants liv­ing in the United States.

Busi­ness mogul Don­ald Trump un­leashed his im­mig­ra­tion talk­ing points on stage. Amer­ica needed a wall, he said to pro­tect the coun­try from il­leg­al im­mig­ra­tion: “We will have a wall. The wall will be built. The wall will be suc­cess­ful. If you don’t think walls work, ask Is­rael,” Trump said. “The wall works, be­lieve me. Prop­erly done. Be­lieve me.”

Only this time, Trump was con­fron­ted with two of the party’s mod­er­ates who are vy­ing for a gasp at the spot­light as they struggle to break through in a crowded and con­ser­vat­ive primary field. Both former Flor­ida Gov. Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich leaped at the op­por­tun­ity to strike ra­tionale in­to the heart of Trump’s im­mig­ra­tion policy. Part of Trump’s plan has in­cluded de­port­ing the roughly 11 mil­lion im­mig­rants already resid­ing in the coun­try il­leg­ally.

“Come on, folks, we all know you can’t pick them up and ship them across the bor­der,” Kasich an­nounced on stage be­fore call­ing Trump’s plan plain “silly.”

“It is not an adult ar­gu­ment. It makes no sense,” Kasich said.

Kasich said he sup­por­ted a plan to al­low many of the im­mig­rants already in the coun­try to get on a path to leg­al status. Bush chimed in that if more Re­pub­lic­an can­did­ates con­tin­ued to talk like Trump rather than Kasich, the GOP would en­danger it­self ahead of the gen­er­al elec­tion.

“They’re do­ing high-fives in the Clin­ton cam­paign right now as they hear this,” Bush said about the im­mig­ra­tion de­bate in the GOP.

Ever since Don­ald Trump entered the GOP race and dis­paraged the im­mig­rants cross­ing the bor­der in­to the United States il­leg­ally, the Re­pub­lic­an Party has struggled to make in­roads with Latino voters. The Re­pub­lic­an Na­tion­al Com­mit­tee had hoped this cycle would be an op­por­tun­ity for Re­pub­lic­ans to im­prove upon Mitt Rom­ney’s paltry per­form­ance with the His­pan­ic elect­or­ate, which yiel­ded him just 27 per­cent of the vote. In­stead, many con­ser­vat­ives vy­ing for Trump sup­port­ers have found them­selves try­ing to im­it­ate Trump’s tone rather than dis­tance them­selves from it. Tues­day night, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said he was sick and tired of his law and or­der im­mig­ra­tion policies be­ing viewed as anti-im­mig­rant.

“The polit­ics of it would be very dif­fer­ent if a bunch of law­yers and bankers were cross­ing the Rio Grande,” Cruz said.

But, at the end of the day, the tussle on stage re­minded voters of one thing: The GOP is about as di­vided as ever on the is­sue of im­mig­ra­tion.