Jeb Bush suggests the U.S. law should make immigration easier and illegal immigrants should be given legal residency and not citizenship.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and co-author Clint Bolick have revealed in their new book "Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution" their thoughts on illegal immigration. According to them, laws in the U.S. should be amended so as to make immigration a whole lot easier. They also suggest that illegal immigrants should be given legal residency and not citizenship. According to the authors, the U.S. government should legalize undocumented immigrants after they pay a fine or do some community service so that they do not create any crimes. By doing this, these people can gain a legalized status over time and be able to live with dignity.

Bush speaks to NPR about these thoughts in an interview.

On why Republicans need to sign on to an immigration overhaul

"Being against other people's policies eventually puts you in a downward spiral. It's fine to be principled and oppose views that you don't agree with, but you also have to have an alternative. And so, Clint and I believe that what we've proposed is a good, conservative, economically driven, respect-for-the-rule-of-law set of policies that would work, and it's something that the Republicans could embrace."

On whether Republicans are fighting too many budget battles

"No, I think it's correct to say that we have a spending problem that's going to overwhelm all the priorities that people in public life would want, so advocating spending restraint is important. But I think it also ought to be combined with an advocacy of reform ... of our entitlement system and engage the president to get him to be public about what his plan is."

On overhauling Medicare

"If the president is for increasing the eligibility rate, which I think makes sense, given the changing demographic nature of our country, if he's for whatever substantive changes he's for, he should be public about it. This is not a radical idea. This is how it has been done in American history - presidents have led and they have used all the skills at their disposal to convince and persuade and to find common ground. My brother did it, Bill Clinton did it, my dad did it, Ronald Reagan did it, Lyndon Johnson did it. Why is it such a hard thing for us now to expect presidents to lead?"

On deciding whether to run for President

"We just had an election, and a lot will happen between now and the time that I would even begin to consider something like that. So time would be the leading indicator."