MIAMI -- Jeb Bush outlined plans Monday to improve security of the nation's borders and enforcement of its immigration laws, calling both a requirement before any president could begin to address the status of the estimated 11 million people living in the country illegally.
"Finding a practical solution to the status of the people who are here illegally today is a nonstarter if our borders are not secure against future illegal immigration," the former governor of Florida said in a statement.
A focus on border security as a precondition of any overhaul of the nation's immigration laws has become a policy point for many of the Republican candidates for president.
But Bush's focus on this aspect of the debate is notable, given the months he has spent defending his support for creating a path to permanent legal status for those in the country illegally.
Many aspects of Bush's border security proposal, such as creating "forward-operating bases" and increasing the use of drones and other technology to watch for drug and human traffickers, are not new. Several are already employed by federal authorities, and they largely mirror those Bush suggested in his 2013 book Immigration Wars, which he co-wrote with Clint Bolick.
Bush, who is fluent in Spanish and married to a Mexican immigrant and refers to his children as Hispanic, has largely taken a softer tone than most in the GOP field on immigration.
He has said those who come to the U.S. illegally do so as "an act of love" to make a better life for their families. Bush has also argued that resolving the nation's immigration debate is key to boosting the nation's economic growth, saying the country's legal immigration process should focus more on letting in workers the country needs rather than reuniting families.
Last week, he again rejected the idea that a resolution of the immigration debate should begin with the mass deportation of people who are now in the country illegally.
"The idea of self-deportation, of rounding people up, is not an American value," Bush said at a campaign stop in Florida. "Americans reject that idea."
Bush said in his proposal that the federal government must keep better track of foreign visitors, citing a 2006 report from the Pew Hispanic Center that said up to half the number of people in the U.S. illegally have overstayed their visas.
"While we need to find a practical solution to the status of people who are here illegally today, as we secure the border going forward, we need to identify and send home the people who enter the country legally but overstay their visas or otherwise violate the terms of their admission," he said.
Bush's statement also broadly discussed how he would deal with people currently living in the country illegally, requiring them to pass a criminal background check, pay fines and taxes, learn English, obtain "a provisional work permit" and get a job in order to obtain legal status.
The Democratic National Committee slammed Bush's plan. It is part of "the same Republicans playbook that divides families and hurts our economy," Hispanic Media Director Pablo Manriquez said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the corporate website of Donald Trump, one of Bush's Republican rivals, was the target of a cyberattack Monday, the same day a celebrity gossip website published an old mobile telephone number for the billionaire businessman.
Aides to Trump said hackers were able to access nonpublic pages inside Trump.com, where they posted a tribute to comedian and late-night talk show host Jon Stewart.
The aides described the episode as a prank and not a serious threat. They said the hackers' temporary entry into a low-level page was not connected to any of Trump.com's navigational components, compromised no corporate information and was fixed in less than 30 minutes.
In a separate event, New York-based celebrity gossip and media news website Gawker published a telephone number it said was Trump's.
"It is a very old number. This is not one he uses," said Trump campaign spokesman Corey Lewandowski. "Mr. Trump has several numbers, so he has not experienced any issues."
Gawker said it was publishing the number because Trump disclosed Republican rival Lindsey Graham's cellphone number last month during a feud over Sen. John McCain's military service.
Elsewhere, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton is spending $2 million to air the first television ads of her presidential race in the early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire.
The ads, which start today and run statewide, focus on Clinton's work on behalf of families and her relationship with her late mother -- central themes of her campaign.
"After law school, she could have gone to a big firm but instead went to work for the Children's Defense Fund. In Arkansas, she fought for school reform to change lives forever. Then as first lady she helped get health care for eight million kids," says a narrator in one of the ads.
A number of Republican candidates have already begun airing ads, attempting to distinguish themselves in a crowded primary field. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's campaign has spent more than $12 million on ads that will start airing at the end of the year in Iowa, New Hampshire and other states. Ohio Gov. John Kasich has spent $1 million, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's campaign has spent nearly $500,000 on ads in New Hampshire.
Information for this article was contributed by Lisa Lerer and Thomas Beaumont of The Associated Press.
A Section on 08/04/2015