In his book, Jeb Bush makes the case for amnesty without the possibility of citizenship. The book is emphatic on this point, and Jeb took some heat from his immigration-expansionist confederates when it came out. An excerpt from pp. 43-44 (my emphasis):

Permanent residency in this context, however, should not lead to citizenship. It is absolutely vital to the integrity of our immigration system that actions have consequences — in this case, that those who violated the laws can remain but cannot obtain the cherished fruits of citizenship. To do otherwise would signal once again that people who circumvent the system can still obtain the full benefits of American citizenship. It must be a basic prerequisite for citizenship to respect the rule of law. But those who entered illegally, despite compelling reasons to do so in many instances, did so knowing that they were violating the law of the land. A grant of citizenship is an undeserving reward for conduct that we cannot afford to encourage. … Our proposal imposes two penalties for illegally [sic] entry: fines and/or community services, and ineligibility for citizenship.”

You might think from all this that Jeb is, you know, against citizenship for illegals.

You would be wrong.

In describing his immigration proposal as the “grown-up” plan in New Hampshire last week, Jeb endorsed the 2013 Schumer-Rubio bill and its pathway to citizenship for illegals. This by itself wasn’t new — he’d expressed similar sentiments in the past. But until now, he’d never been so bold as to all-but-admit that his sporadic advocacy of a non-citizenship amnesty is a political ploy designed to overcome public resistance. As the Wall Street Journal put it: “Mr. Bush said he could also be supportive of a path to citizenship for people in the country illegally – as he did at one time – but said there currently isn’t sufficient political support for it.”

This isn’t the usual case of a politician emulating Groucho Marx in saying “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.” He’s more like the car salesman asking “What can I do to get you into this car today?” Like the car salesman, Jeb knows what his goal is — citizenship for illegal aliens — but calculates that getting there will require a certain amount of song-and-dance about “ineligibility for citizenship,” at least to certain audiences. More than merely a campaign gimmick, it’s a legislative strategy; once the illegals have work permits, Jeb rightly calculates that getting them over the finish line to citizenship will be more politically feasible.

This isn’t to say there’s no intellectually serious argument for a non-citizenship amnesty as the end point, rather than merely a way-station. Peter Skerry (echoed by Yuval Levin and Reihan Salam) makes a reasoned case for “legalization for as many undocumented immigrants as possible, but citizenship for none of them.” I myself think this is a politically unsustainable approach — it seems certain that Congress would grant them full access to citizenship within just a few years, breaking their promise to the public — but Skerry isn’t promoting it as a political ploy to dupe the voters.

Jeb is. This kind of political dishonesty is ironic considering something else he said last week in New Hampshire:

Just because there is “political heat” around an issue, Bush said, “you don’t abandon your core beliefs.”
“You need to be genuine. You need to have a backbone,” he added.

If Jeb really did have “backbone” he would clearly state his core belief in full citizenship for illegals, but concede that since the Republican Party’s yahoos can’t swallow that, he’ll settle for work permits as a first step and fight for citizenship further down the road.