Donald Trump said during an interview with MSNBC’s Morning Joe that he believed a low minimum wage was a good thing for America, because it helped the country compete with foreigners.
Advertisement
“If Republicans want to be competitive in the general election, they have to distance themselves from Trump on both illegal and legal immigration“, Alfonso Aguilar, a former official in George W. Bush’s administration and executive director of the conservative American Principles Project’s Latino Partnership, tells The New York Times.
Trump has made immigration the centerpiece of his presidential campaign in his surge to the top of the polls.
And, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., was part of the Senate’s “Gang of Eight”, the bipartisan group of senators that led the effort on immigration reform in 2013, but he’s been noticeably quiet on immigration since announcing a bid for president.
In 2012, the Law Library of Congress took a comprehensive look at France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom and found that none of those countries automatically give citizenship to children born to undocumented immigrant parents. The question is: Why are so many Republican candidates (seven, by NBC’s count) signaling, at a minimum, an openness to ending birthright citizenship?
According to a 2009 report by the Pew Hispanic Center, 3.8 million undocumented immigrants have at least one child who is a U.S. citizen. “I went…to ask him his ideas – how we could make the border something other than a locale for a nine-foot fence”.
Of course, if that’s the case, then why bother ending birthright citizenship?
However, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said walling off the border “doesn’t make any sense”.
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum speaks at the National Press Club, August 20, 2015 in Washington, DC.
Just 18% of Republican voters said Trump would be the best candidate on social issues, compared with 14% for Bush and 12% for Carson.
The segment of the GOP that embraces Mr. Trump’s immigration plan is not the Party of Reagan. “We have to start a process, Bill, where we take back our country”. He has also pledged to end birthright citizenship.
The poll also shows Trump has solid support when it’s broken down among income and education levels, but there is a slight college divide. But many of them agree with me – you’re going to find they do not have American citizenship.
Advertisement
Trump finished by saying that the families sent back with their children could return to the country if they are deemed worthy.
