Contrary to his gung-ho and partisan approach, Gingrich is clearly divided on the issue of immigration. We’ve rarely seen him struggling to convey his message, so it is a rare treat to see a contemplative, thoughtful and hesitant Gingrich. He may be alienating a large segment of the GOP grassroots with his stance, and in the process, open himself to accusations of pandering to the Hispanic community, but one can clearly sense that this is Gingrich being earnest.
Immigration: Yea or Nae
Yea.
“There's nothing complicated about what's going on. The richest society in the planet is within geographic reach now, in the age of modern transportation, of much poorer societies. So relatively smart people wake up in the morning and say, Gee, I could earn $1 an hour here or $14 an hour in Kansas City. I wonder where I'd like to be next week. This isn't complicated. It's not indecent and it’s not wrong. But a society which fails to control its own borders is asking for the level of trouble we now have.”
April 26, 2006, Gingrich speaking at the American Enterprise Institute For Public Policy Research
On Amnesty
"Because I think we are going to want to find some way to deal with the people who are here to distinguish between those who have no ties to the United States, and therefore you can deport them at minimum human cost, and those who, in fact, may have earned the right to become legal, but not citizens"
May 19, 2011, Iowa
“No serious citizen who’s concerned about solving this problem should get trapped into a yes/no answer in which you’re either for totally selling out protecting America or you’re for totally kicking out 20 million people in a heartless way. There are — there are humane, practical steps to solve this problem, if we can get the politicians and the news media to just deal with it honestly.”
June 13, 2011, Gingrich speaking on the GOP New Hampshire Presidential Debate
On Deportation
"We are not going to deport 11 million people. There has to be some zone between deportation and amnesty… Let's find someone who actually knows what they're doing… It should be possible for any employer, anyone in the United States, as fast as you swipe your ATM card to get cash, to swipe a card to know whether or not they're able to hire you”
December 2, speaking at The Americano.com First Annual Hispanic Forum 2010, Washington
“I’m just going to ask them a simple question… They’re going to take somebody who came here at 3 years of age, who doesn’t speak Spanish and who just graduated from a high school in Texas, and they’re going to say to him, ‘We’re going to deport you… That’s certainly their prerogative. I don’t think the country will go for that. I think that’s so lax in a concern for the human beings involved…
March 1, 2011, Interview with The Hill
On Legislation
So first of all I would urge the House and Senate to pass a border control bill that's real. And when I say real, let me explain - I recommend to all of you, if you've never read Rudy Giuliani's Leadership and Bill Bratton's Turnaround, they're both worth reading to understand what I mean by real.
Bratton is actually the police chief who actually enforced Giuliani's determination to control crime. They set up a system called COMSTAT for Computer Statistics. They were very aggressive and very direct. They replaced three-fourths of the Precinct Captains in New York the first year. Out of 76 Precincts, three-fourths of their captains replaced. They reduced crime 14% the first year. Mayor Bloomberg has maintained the same system. Crime in New York today is down 70%. New York is statistically the safest large city in the United States. One estimate is there are 16,000 people alive today who would've been killed in New York over the last 15 years.
Staggering. I mean, nobody studies it because it’s a success. And how could you possibly do a Time magazine cover about success? That would imply things in America could work.
April 26, 2006, Gingrich speaking at the American Enterprise Institute For Public Policy Research seminar
U.S. Mexico Border Fence
“I am deeply committed to securing the border… I am deeply committed to changing the deportation rules for felons and gang members… But I also think we have a huge challenge — what do you do with the human beings who are engaged, some of whom are married, have children? It’s a very complicated situation, and I don’t you think you can just wave a magic wand and have some kind of a simple, clean answer.”
