Birthright citizenship, an issue long kicked about in Republican circles, has leaped to the forefront of the political debate, with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump leading the charge and drawing fierce fire from critics who say he and his fellow candidates are messing with a fundamental principle of American history.
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The Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday shows state Republican voters favor Trump by 24 percent, followed by Ben Carson, 13 percent; and U.S. Sen.
As O’Reilly pointed out, however, the Constitution’s 14th Amendment enshrines birthright citizenship into U.S. law.
He has also pledged to end birthright citizenship.
That language made it clear the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Dred Scott case was overturned and that black Americans would enjoy U.S. citizenship. Cruz has also nodded to the improbability of tweaking the Constitution, saying in a Wednesday interview with conservative radio host Michael Medved that “any constitutional amendment by its nature is hard to achieve”. “And frankly, the whole thing with “anchor babies” and the concept of “anchor babies” – I don’t think you’re right about that”.
“I can quote it!” “You give me a better term and I’ll use it”. “Period!”
“That makes sense to me”, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said about Cruz’s plan to remove birthright citizenship status from the Constitution, “in the sense that – why would you want to reward folks that are coming here illegally?” And the federal courts will never allow mass deportations without due process for each and every one. That compares to 27% who felt a Trump nomination was likely two months ago when he formally announced his presidential bid, a finding that included just nine percent (9%) who said it was Very Likely.
There are about 11 million unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S., and Trump argued that they are taking Americans’ jobs and bringing crime into the country.
Led by Donald Trump, other GOP candidates have been calling for an end to birthright citizenship for the babies of people living in the country illegally. No one is going to be elected president on a platform of depriving people born in this country of citizenship no matter who their parents might be. However, a succession of Fox News analysts such as columnist George Will, commentator Charles Krauthammer and consultant Karl Rove have lampooned Trump as either a clown or someone who is too bombastic to be taken seriously.
In a testy exchange with reporters in New Hampshire, Bush said that he doesn’t believe the expression is offensive and blamed Democrats for perpetuating the notion that it is an insult.
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Trump may come across as wacky, but I don’t think anyone doubts that he really plans to do as he says.
