Why Clinton’s Immigration Speech Left Many Republican Rivals Speechless

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s fighting words on immigration this week, designed in part to provoke Republicans into a reactionary counterattack, instead drew an unusual early response from several top-tier GOP presidential candidates: silence.

Two days after Clinton vowed to expand on President Obama’s executive actions to shield up to 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was one of the only leading Republican 2016 contenders to strike back, calling it a “full embrace of amnesty” that is “unfair to hard-working Americans.”

By contrast, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie did not weigh in publicly on the remarks Clinton made Tuesday at a campaign stop in Las Vegas. Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), one of Obama’s most vocal critics on immigration, waited until Wednesday evening to respond on Facebook, writing that Clinton wants to “continue and expand President Obama’s illegal amnesty” and “continue the lawlessness that is dividing our country.”

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee told MSNBC on Wednesday that Clinton was wrong, saying the country needs to focus on border security first.

The relatively subdued GOP reaction illustrated a dilemma for a Republican Party still wrestling with the hot-button issue of immigration three years after Obama routed Mitt Romney behind overwhelming support from Latinos and Asian Americans. (Read more from “Why Clinton’s Immigration Speech Left Many Republican Rivals Speechless” HERE)

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