"The way you win the presidency is to have practical plans," and that does not include deporting millions of illegal aliens, Republican Jeb Bush said at Tuesday night's debate hosted by Fox Business Network. "Twelve million illegal immigrants, to send them back, 500,000 a month, is just not -- not possible. And it's not embracing American values. And it would tear communities apart. And it would send a signal that we're not the kind of country that I know America is," he said.
Bush indicated that Republicans shouldn't even be having such a discussion:
"And even having this conversation sends a powerful signal -- they're doing high-fives in the Clinton campaign right now when they hear this. That's the problem with this. We have to win the presidency. And the way you win the presidency is to have practical plans. Lay them out there.
"What we need to do is allow people to earn legal status where they pay a fine, where they work, where they don't commit crimes, where they learn English, and over an extended period of time, they earn legal status. That's the path -- a proper path...
Republican Donald Trump, who favors deportation, jumped in:
"We have millions of people right now on line trying to come into this country. Very, very unfair to the people that want to come into our country legally. They've gone through the process. They're on line. They're waiting. Very, very unfair to them. That I can tell you," Trump said.