Act of Love

Act of Love is a phrase used by American politician Jeb Bush to describe the act of immigrating illegally to the United States for the purpose of improving a family's economic condition, and also a U.S. political advertisement released by the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump as part of an attack on Bush's approach to illegal immigration to the United States. Background Bush made the statement in answer to a question put by a reporter during a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the presidency of his father, George H. W. Bush, held at the George Bush Presidential Library in April 2014. During the August 6, 2015 Republican Presidential debate, when moderator Chris Wallace asked Bush if he stood by this statement, Bush responded, "I do. I believe that the great majority of people coming here illegally have no other option. They want to provide for their family." He added that "there should be a path to earned legal status" for illegal immigrants. The advertisement, released in August 2015, attacked Bush by playing a tape of Bush defending illegal entry into the U.S. by undocumented migrants as "an act of love." In the ad, mugshots of illegal immigrants who committed violent crimes in the U.S. alternate with footage of Bush saying, "Yeah, they broke the law, but it's not a felony.... It's an act of love." It is regarded by a number of commentators as having been a crucial turning point in the failure of the Bush candidacy.