The Latest Republican Presidential Debate and Immigration

Merrill Clark, Esq. has provided the immigration highlights from the latest Republican Presidential debate, this one ostensibly focusing on on national security  See Download Immigration highlights from 11222011 debate.

Here is Merrill' capsule summary:

"Rising Newt Gingrich made the news with his proposal to semi-legalize undocumented people who have been here for a long time. Only 23 mentions of `illegal' rather than previous 36 mentions of `illegal' and this debate was theoretically about foreign policy."

The tenor of the discussion among the candidates was more balanced than the previous debates in which each candidate tried to establish that he or she was were more immigration enforcement-oriented than the next candidate.  There was a good deal of support for skilled immigrants and Newt Gingrich sounded willing to conteplate some kind of path to legalization, which Michele Bachmann instantly translated as an "amnesty" for 11 million undocumented immigrants.  Are we seeing Newt the Statesman emerging?

KJ