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Jeb Bush Talks About Immigration

The Republican presidential candidate responded to Donald J. Trump’s immigration proposals, as well as his own use of the term “anchor baby.”

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS on Publish Date August 24, 2015. Photo by Delcia Lopez/The Monitor, via Associated Press. Watch in Times Video »

The schoolyard taunts from Donald J. Trump arrive on a daily basis, raining down on Jeb Bush’s sober, careful and policy-minded campaign with growing acerbity.

Mr. Trump has called Mr. Bush’s immigration plans “baby stuff” and his education policy “pathetic.” He has expressed mock sympathy for Mr. Bush’s audiences, who he says must be so bored that “they’re sleeping.” Over the weekend, Mr. Trump even poked fun at a new Bush campaign advertisement that inadvertently rendered his left hand many shades darker than his right.

“Jeb,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter, “just can’t get it right.”

After enduring those slings and arrows for weeks, to the mounting dismay of supporters, Mr. Bush, the former Florida governor, and his aides have decided to venture outside their comfort zone and borrow a page from Mr. Trump’s playbook: Hit back, with force and creativity, over and over again in the coming weeks.

It is a turning point in Mr. Bush’s campaign that was on display Monday in McAllen, Tex., along the border with Mexico. There, Mr. Bush called Mr. Trump’s immigration plan “unrealistic,” described his policies as un-Republican and acidly recommended that the businessman read Mr. Bush’s book “Immigration Wars” to acquaint himself with a practical solution.

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The change in Mr. Bush’s tone is a calculated strategy, interviews show, with two different but crucial aims now that Mr. Trump is proving to be a long-term obstacle, not a passing nuisance: to dilute Mr. Trump’s right-wing support by proving that he is not a genuine conservative and to show a wary Republican Party that Mr. Bush is enough of a street fighter to survive a nasty nomination contest.

In a frank if grudging acknowledgment of the altered political landscape, Mr. Bush on Monday proclaimed Mr. Trump “a serious candidate.”

“He needs to be held to account for his views,” he told reporters at a restaurant near the border.

The new approach, which began with Mr. Bush’s remarks last week in New Hampshire and then on Monday, may soon expand, drawing in surrogates who can broaden the critique beyond Mr. Trump’s policies — much the way that Mitt Romney sought to undermine rivals like Newt Gingrich in 2012, said people familiar with the discussions, who insisted on anonymity to discuss plans that were not set in stone.

In a phone interview Monday, Mr. Trump laughed at the suggestion that he read Mr. Bush’s book on immigration. “That would be exciting,” he said dryly.

“Bush has definitely seen what is happening to his campaign. It’s starting to crumble,” Mr. Trump said.

Mr. Bush’s new assertiveness was not entirely unhampered.

Even as he sought to take the shine off Mr. Trump’s candidacy, he demonstrated just how much the Republican presidential field is now campaigning on Mr. Trump’s terms. Pressed to explain his embrace of the term “anchor baby,” which many immigrants find offensive, Mr. Bush wound up echoing Mr. Trump’s resistance to linguistic sensitivity. “I think we need to take a step back,” Mr. Bush said, “and chill out a little bit as it relates to the political correctness.” (Mr. Bush said he was referring to “Asian people” who travel to the United States to give birth.)

Mr. Trump greeted this with amusement. “That sounds a little familiar,” he said in the interview.

Those close to Mr. Bush said his campaign was reluctant to so quickly enter the phase dominated by combat between candidates. Mr. Bush has barely begun introducing his own record and résumé to voters, which remains his primary objective.

Mr. Trump has shown staying power — and has made Mr. Bush the focus of his derisive, name-calling campaigning style. Mr. Bush and his aides felt they no could no longer avoid a sustained confrontation without appearing cowardly. (And they took real umbrage at Mr. Trump’s insults, especially when he called Mr. Bush “a low energy person” — a phrase Mr. Trump repeated several times during the interview.)

Kevin Madden, a former adviser to Mr. Romney’s campaign and a longtime Republican operative, said the new Bush strategy “is a recognition that we’re moving from the August preseason to the regular season where the wins and losses matter.”

He added, “The longer they let Trump do all of the talking, the greater the risk was that those criticisms could sink in with voters.”

But counterpunching at Mr. Trump poses its own hazards. A seemingly constant presence on television, he has by far the loudest megaphone in the Republican primary and can make life miserable for his foes.

Sally Bradshaw, a top adviser to Mr. Bush, said the campaign was treating Mr. Trump “as we would treat every other candidate.”

“Trump has for weeks been attacking the governor,” she said, “and Jeb has taken those opportunities to highlight their differences on the issues. It’s a contrast we welcome.”

In Texas, Mr. Bush assailed Mr. Trump’s plan to deport millions of immigrants in the country illegally and erect a giant wall at the Mexican border.

“The simple fact is his proposal is unrealistic,” Mr. Bush said. “It would cost hundreds of billions of dollars. It would violate people’s civil liberties. It would create friction with our third-largest trade partner that’s not necessary.”

Mr. Bush at times showed frustration at having to answer Mr. Trump’s criticisms on the topics of Mexico, border security and citizenship.

“I am happily married with a Mexican-American. My kids are Hispanic,” Mr. Bush said in Spanish. “The experience of immigration, no one is going to give me a lecture on this.”

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