After announcing his bid in the 2016 presidential race, former New York Gov. George Pataki appealed to young Hispanic voters by making an appearance on Fusion earlier this week to tout his views on immigration reform, which, in a field of conservative GOP hopefuls running for the Republican nomination for president, tend toward the more moderate side.

While speaking to host Jorge Ramos on Friday, the former Republican governor shared his views on how to fix the country's broken immigration system and handle the 11 million undocumented residents currently living in the U.S.

At the same time, he distanced himself from President Obama's attempts to act on immigration without Congress, which recently hit a big setback in court. 

"Most Latinos support President Obama's executive action that would benefit in between 4 and 5 million undocumented immigrants. Would you do the same if you become president?" asked Ramos.

"Not at all," Pataki replied, criticizing the president for using his executive power to overhaul the nation's immigration laws. "The rule of law is very important in America," Pataki explained.

"Time and again he said that he did not have the executive authority, and I agreed with him then," added Pataki. "He doesn't. It's not a question of what you want to do. It's what you can do."

Pataki outlined his own solution on immigration reform that suggests that he would be in favor of granting some kind of legal status to undocumented immigrants -- something of a rarity on the Republican side of the 2016 campaign so far.  

"I think we do have to have an approach that provides the ability for those here illegally to legalize their status when they've obeyed the law, contributed to America. We're not going to put 11 million people on buses and send them back. But I don't think the way the president did it was right."

Despite running on the middle ground between the "no amnesty" far right and Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton's full embrace of immigration reform, some immigrant rights advocates criticized Pataki's current stance on immigration.

"As governor, George Pataki stood strong with immigrant youth [in] New York by signing the in-state tuition bill in 2002," wrote Cristina Jimenez, managing director for United We Dream, in a statement referring back to Pataki's previous legislative success reforming immigration by allowing undocumented students eligibility for in-state tuition at New York public colleges.

"But now, he's buckling under the pressure of his party's mass-deportation right-wing by opposing President Obama's executive actions on immigration that would protect millions of immigrants across the country," continued Jimenez. 

"By opposing deferred action programs that already protect nearly 700,000 Dreamers and are set to protect millions more, Pataki is turning his back on his own immigration record by advocating for the deportation of my parents."

When asked in the Fusion interview if he thinks he could beat Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton in the race, Pataki responded saying, "I know I can beat Hillary Clinton."

The former three-term governor went on to say, "When I ran as governor, I didn't just appeal to the Republican base. Yes, I did, and they came out in droves. But I appealed to independents, to moderates, to Democrats."

"And by the way," he added, "with the [support of the] Latino community, I carried the Latino community... I won it as a Republican."

Watch George Pataki's interview below.