His decline among independents was even larger than Trump’s.
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There is no doubt that birthright citizenship could be ended by a constitutional amendment, but any such amendment would face insuperable odds.
“This is not negotiation of a real estate deal, O.K.?” He proposed a wall along the border with Mexico, improved job security for Americans and the end to birthright citizenship, which he called “the biggest magnet for illegal immigration”.
Many Republicans support an end to birthright citizenship. Inflaming voters’ emotions on immigration is not the same as solving the immigration problem. “I’m telling you, that one has people standing up and cheering”. “It might get you the Laura Ingraham or the Ann Coulter award, but it’s not going to win you a primary, and it’s not going to win a general election”. And in the meantime taking this stand sends a message to every citizen born of an immigrant of dubious legality: that you do not believe they have a right to be an American.
When the amendment was ratified in 1868, it had nothing to do with illegal immigration, a concept that did not exist back then.
“What about the U.S.-born children of the 11.2 million undocumented immigrants here in the U.S.?”
So could a President Trump abolish birthright citizenship? About 30 nations have birthright citizenship policies, including Canada, Brazil, Pakistan and Jamaica. His parents resided in the U.S. legally. And he probably won’t be the last.
“End birthright citizenship“, Trump wrote in his proposal. Rand Paul with 6 percent; businesswoman Carly Fiorina, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has backed a law that would impose a mandatory minimum prison sentence for any illegal re-entry offense.
Ending birthright citizenship would have some unexpected consequences, Motomura noted.
How controversial is it really, though, to oppose birthright citizenship for illegals? Trump wants to overrule the law that grants citizenship to people born within the United States and apply authoritarian limits on the legalization of immigration.
Trump’s stance on birthright citizenship was supported by his fellow Republican rival, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. A strict immigration platform alone isn’t enough to make voters change their allegiance.
Gerson warned that “revoking birthright citizenship would turn hundreds of thousands of infants into “criminals” – arriving, not across a border, but crying in a hospital”.
Graham also slammed Trump’s plan to defeat ISIS, which includes bombing some Iraqi oil fields and seizing control of others to pay for services in the U.S. Bush disagrees with Obama’s use of executive actions to unilaterally enforce the policy.
History is evidence that immigration has the power to seriously hurt candidates’ favorability among Hispanics, who will account for about 12 percent of eligible voters in 2016.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, however, bucks the trend. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who chairs a Senate subcommittee on immigration.
“We can’t just have people swimming across the river having children here – that’s chaos”, Graham told Fox News at the time.
But as Republican politics has become more radical, opposition to the principle has moved from the fringe to Congress to the presidential campaign trail. In 2014, 36 percent did.
Reid was once among the supporters of ending birthright citizenship, and sponsored legislation in 1993 that would end the practice. To go after their American status – or as Donald Trump wishes, to deport them en masse along with their illegal parents – will be a daunting political and legal proposition. Both dropped out of the race early.
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“This is exactly the plan America needs”, Sessions said in a statement.
