Birthright for dummies
by digby
This came from the DNC but I think it’s worth sharing just so everyone understands that this birthright citizenship flap isn’t just some temporary primary red meat issue. They are absolutely committed to it:
As far back as 1993, then-Congressman John Kasich co-sponsored a bill to end birthright citizenship. By 2010, FOX News Contributor-turned-candidate for Governor Kasich had continued his crusade against citizen children. That yearLindsey Graham joined Kasich when he responded to Democrats’ push for comprehensive immigration reform by accusing that immigrant mothers “drop and leave” their children in the U.S.
The following year, in 2011, Senator Rand Paul introduced a resolution to amend the constitution and end birthright citizenship. By 2013, one of the vilest terms in Latino politics was born when Republican Congressman Steve King introduced a bill to end “anchor babies” – the disgusting term some Republicans use to describe U.S. citizen children born to immigrant parents.
This summer the GOP has again shifted their attack from immigrants, to immigrant families, to the U.S. citizen children of immigrant parents. Just last weekChris Christie, not once but twice, called for the reexamination of the 14th Amendment, or “birthright citizenship”. Scott Walker told a reporter he would flat out end birthright citizenship as president. On the campaign trail, Ted Cruz has refused to say whether he supported Steve King’s proposal to eliminate birthright citizenship. Here’s a rundown of what some of the rest of the GOP field has said about birthright citizenship.
REPUBLICANS IN THEIR OWN WORDS…
· Lindsey Graham: “We should change our Constitution and say if you come here illegally and you have a child, that child’s automatically not a citizen.” (Fox News)
· Rand Paul: “I’ve always agreed with Milton Freidman who says you can’t have open borders in a welfare state. You can’t become a magnet for the world and let everybody come in here, have children, and then they become citizens. So I still do agree with that.” (WNDTV)
· Rick Santorum: “Only children born on American soil where at least one parent is a citizen or resident aliens is automatically a U.S. citizen.”(Breitbart)
· Ben Carson: “The 14th Amendment has been brought up recently, about ‘anchor babies’, and it doesn’t make any sense to me that people can come over here and have a baby and the baby becomes an American citizen … That doesn’t make any sense at all.” (YouTube)
I particularly like Walker’s promise that he will “end it” as president. I’m sure it will be “on the first day” as well, just like war with Iran and everything else he’s promising. Somebody needs to remind Walker that the president doesn’t have the power to unilaterally change the constitution. He’s confused.
Update:
Even O’Reilly is coming in for criticism on this:
