Perhaps the journalists did not listen to everything Bush said. Yes, he made moderate-sounding statements about immigration, using words and phrases like “shared values” and “dreams” and “economic vitality.” “We need to find a way, a path, to legalized status for those that have come here and have languished in the shadows,” Bush said. “There’s no way that they’re going to be deported. No one is — no one’s suggesting an organized effort to do that.”

But just moments before — in remarks that did not receive as much coverage — Bush seemed to propose an organized effort to deport millions of illegal immigrants. If Bush actually did what he appeared to say should be done, he would deport as many illegal immigrants from the United States as President Obama has legalized with his unilateral executive action.

“A great nation needs to control its border,” Bush told the audience in San Francisco, “not just at the border, which is hugely important, but also the 40 percent of the people that have come here illegally with a legal visa and overstayed their bounds. We ought to be able to figure out where they are and politely ask them to leave.”