In “Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution,” former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (R) argues that undocumented immigrants shouldn’t be eligible for American citizenship, breaking from the growing bipartisan consensus surrounding reform and contradicting his own position on the issue earlier this year. The book, written with attorney Clint Bolick, will be published on Tuesday.

According to an advanced copy obtained by the Huffington Post’s Elise Foley, Bush writes, “It is absolutely vital to the integrity of our immigration system that actions have consequences — in this case, that those who violated the law 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,” Bush adds. He opens a crack in the door for the unauthorized population, however, noting that those who wish to become citizens, must first return to their home country:

“A grant of citizenship is an undeserving reward for conduct that we cannot afford to encourage,” they write. “However, illegal immigrants who wish to become citizens should have the choice of returning to their native countries and applying through normal immigration processes that now would be much more open than before.”

Asking 11 millions undocumented immigrants to leave the country — “three-fifths of whom have lived in the United States for more than a decade” — isn’t only impractical, but could disrupt businesses and economies and create a permanent underclass of Americans.

Unauthorized immigrants would face the choice of remaining in the country without all of the rights and privileges of citizenship or abandoning their jobs, families, and communities to travel back to a native country that they haven’t seen in years. At least 4.5 million native-born U.S.-citizen children who “have at least one unauthorized parent” could be separated from their mother or father.

Bush would allow young DREAM-eligible immigrants to apply for citizenship while remaining in the country, but his stance on the wider population positions the former Florida governor to right of Republicans like Marco Rubio (R-FL), John McCain (R-AZ), and brother George W. Bush — all of whom support a path to earned citizenship. And for good reason: under the bipartisan immigration principles advanced by the Senate and President Obama, undocumented immigrants would have to learn English, pay taxes, and undergo numerous background checks before qualifying for permanent status. As Rubio explains, immigrants who register with the government and receive probationary status “will not be allowed to apply for a green card for a substantial period of time,” waiting “in line behind everyone who has applied before them.”
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Two former Republican secretaries of Homeland Security joined current Secretary Janet Napolitano in calling for comprehensive immigration reform during a Politico Breakfast event on Monday morning and defended the Obama administration’s recent release of thousands of undocumented immigrants from detention. Last week, conservatives characterized the release of nonviolent immigrants ahead of the looming budget cuts that went into effect on Friday, as an effort to “politicize” the cuts or exert retribution against states like Arizona.

Speaking alongside former Secretaries Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff at an event to mark the Department’s anniversary, Napolitano explained that the majority of the releases were the result of the normal “ebb and flow” of moving individuals in and out of detention. “Several hundred are related to sequester but it wasn’t thousands,” she said, adding that more immigrants will be released as budget cuts are implemented.

Napolitano’s predecessors, agreed, noting that the department is currently hamstrung by a broken immigration system and the chaotic budgetary environment. “The job of the Secretary of Homeland Security with regard to securing the borders would be a heck of a lot easier if the United States Congress would forget about partisanship and come up with a comprehensive immigration plan,” Ridge said, eliciting applause from the audience. Watch it:

Chertoff, who had spearheaded a failed effort to reform the immigration system at the end of President George W. Bush’s second term, argued that lawmakers who support immigration reform must “move quickly” to prevent the opposition from organizing against the effort. He stressed that proponents should highlight the enhanced security on the border and note that reform will only improve the situation.

“Now, I’m not going to tell you that we have a perfectly secure border or that you could have one, but if you look at a series of different metrics over a period of 10 years there has been a steady improvement in terms of operational security of the border and in terms of the net inflow and outflow,” he said. “And we’ve invested an awful lot in that. But never to acknowledge progress is really self defeating.”