Senate candidate Rand Paul (R-KY), in an interview this week with Right Wing News, doubled down on his assertion that the children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States should not be citizens.
In the new interview, Paul said he believes the courts should review whether the Fourteenth Amendment actually grants citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants. And if they decide it does, he said, we should amend the Constitution.
“I also think that we need to have the courts review whether or not — if you break the law to come into the U.S. — whether your child would be a citizen just by being born here,” he said. “The Fourteenth Amendment actually says that you will be a citizen as long as you are under the jurisdiction of the United States. Many argue that these children that are born to illegal aliens are really still under the jurisdiction of the Mexican government. I think we need to fight that out in the courts.”
And if the courts rule against such a challenge?
“If we lose, then I think we should amend the Constitution because I don’t think the 14th amendment was meant to apply to illegal aliens,” Paul said. “It was meant to apply to the children of slaves.”
The Fourteenth Amendment states, in part, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
There has been more talk of denying citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants in some anti-immigration circles. Arizona Republicans, for example, are likely to introduce a bill this fall that would deny citizenship to such children, known by some as “anchor babies.”
Last month, Paul told a Russian TV station that the practice of granting citizenship to all children born in the U.S., even if their parents are in the country illegally, “should stop.”
(H/T The Hill)
