Ben Carson is the latest GOP 2016 candidate to come out against birthright citizenship, the longstanding practice rooted in the 14th Amendment of granting anyone born on American soil U.S. citizenship.
“I know the 14th Amendment has been brought up recently, about anchor babies—and it doesn’t make any sense to me that people could come in here, have a baby and that baby becomes an American citizen,” Carson said at a rally in Phoenix Tuesday, according to Breitbart. “There are many countries in the world where they simply have recognized that and don’t allow that to occur.”
Since Republican front-runner Donald Trump included ending the practice in his immigration platform released Sunday, the issue has split the GOP field. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA), Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) and Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) have all suggested they would be open to changing the practice, and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) co-sponsored a bill in 2011 to limit birthright citizenship. Meanwhile former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina have rejected the idea.
Most legal experts say ending birthright citizenship would require a constitutional amendment. However some supporters of changing the policy, like Rep. Steve King (R-IA), say it would only require a federal statute.
Take away their mirrors, and Republicans don’t see anybody they like.
The issue of birthright citizenship is one that, unfortunately, has nothing to do with birthright citizenship. Rather, it is all about keeping “undesirables” out of the country. While I actually do agree that birthright citizenship is rocky in terms of its desirability, and given that it is something of a rarity in the world, I don’t believe we would be having this conversation if the people who had this happen the most were White Canadians or White Europeans.
Thing is, the issue of Birthright Citizenship was settled back in 1608. Believe it or not, the whole idea rests in British Common Law dating to before the US came into being. It has been settled many times since then.
Would you like to elaborate on that?
The last person who should say anything negative about this subject, has just proven that US History (warts and all) needs to reintroduced back into the schools.
“…some supporters of changing the policy, like Rep. Steve King (R-IA), say it would only require a federal statute.”
And we all know that Steve King is a brilliant Constitutional scholar.