Jeb Bush Co-Chaired Group That Told Politicians Not To Say ‘Anchor Baby’

*Last week Jeb Bush used the “anchor baby” term during a stump speech. A reporter asked him if he understood that the word was offensive to some people. Bush responded, “give me a better term.” VL

By Roque Planas, Hufington Post

Former Florida Gov. [tweet_dis]Jeb Bush (R) worked for years with a group that specifically told politicians not to use the term “anchor baby” because the offensive term would alienate Latino voters.[/tweet_dis] [pullquote]“Do you have a better term?” Bush asked a reporter who questioned whether he regreted calling Americans with undocumented parented “anchor babies.” “You give me a better term and I’ll use it.”[/pullquote]

The Hispanic Leadership Network issued a memo in 2013, in the wake of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s abysmal performance among Latino voters, outlining “tonally sensitive messaging points” on immigration. The memo, titled “Suggested Messaging Dos and Don’ts of Immigration Reform,” aimed to offer alternatives to the “negative and harsh rhetoric that has hurt conservatives in the past.”

“Don’t use the term ‘anchor baby,’” one of the memo’s bullet points reads. Two months after the memo was released, Bush co-chaired HLN’s annual Miami Conference to promote his book and discuss Latino political engagement. He had served as the conference’s co-chairman the two years before as well.

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