Posted on 08/11/2010 10:40:32 AM PDT by GOPGuide
Politico reports on Bush-era staffers who are condemning the latest rhetoric on ending birthright citizenship:
The push by congressional Republicans to deny automatic citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants has opened up a split in the GOP, with several former Bush administration officials warning that the party could lose its claim to one of its proudest legacies: the 14th Amendment.
For Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C) and other conservatives, the solution to what they regard as one of the greatest flaws of U.S. immigration policy is obvious: Amend the amendment, which grants citizenship to anyone born on American soil regardless of whether their parents are legal residents.
But in recent days, former aides to both Vice President Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush, who pushed for comprehensive immigration reform, have condemned the calls by top Republicans to end birthright citizenship.
Cesar Conda, who served as domestic policy adviser to Cheney, has called such proposals “offensive.” Mark McKinnon, who served as media adviser in Bush’s two presidential campaigns, said Republicans risk losing their “rightful claim” to the 14th Amendment if they continue to “demagogue” the issue.
“The 14th Amendment is a great legacy of the Republican party. It is a shame and an embarrassment that the GOP now wants to amend it for starkly political reasons,” McKinnon told POLITICO. “Initially Republicans rallied around the amendment to welcome more citizens to this country. Now it is being used to drive people away.”
Enacted during Reconstruction by a Republican Congress, the 14th Amendment officially overruled the Supreme Court’s infamous Dred Scott decision and defined citizenship not only for newly enfranchised blacks but for all Americans.
For more than a century, it’s been interpreted by the courts to include children whose parents are not U.S. citizens, including illegal immigrants.
“That is the wisdom of the authors of the 14th Amendment: They essentially wanted to take this very difficult issue — citizenship — outside of the political realm,” Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson, a former Bush speechwriter, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “They wanted to take an objective standard, birth, instead of a subjective standard, which is the majorities at the time. I think that’s a much better way to deal with an issue like this.”
But for a growing number of Republicans who believe the children of illegal immigrants should be denied birthright citizenship, the 14th Amendment needs to be fixed.
Graham has become their somewhat unlikely spokesman. In recent months he has faced increasing anger at home from members of his own party who have derided his support for President Barack Obama’s two Supreme Court picks, the bailout for financial institutions, and comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants already in the country.
Who brought David in frum the curb before the garbage was collected?
So Soros Stoodges are at it again.
Republicans wrote the 14th Amendment to protect the children of newly emancipated slaves.
It was NEVER meant to lure illegals from south of our borders to come here in advanced stages of pregnancy & drop an anchor baby.
Clarification of the 14th amendment is sorely needed.
Curious, why is it you spend 100% of your time here trashing what is supposedly your own political side?
Perhaps they ought to look at what has happened to the birthright issue in most other countries. Could it also have become a factor in people’s decisions to enter the USA?
The Bush children were reared by their Mexican housekeepers (legal or illegal), so they have a natural affinity for that culture. That’s why they are all fluent in Spanish...or what passes as Spanish in our Southwest. (The irrepressible G. Gordon Liddy calls it “speaking Guacamole.”)
The number of 11 million illegals here on USA soil is a total travesty.
It is much closer to 55 million.
The common number used during the 70’s was 20 million plus.
The numbers have not gone down in the past 40 years.
Anyone using the 11 million number is a total liar. As recently as 6 months ago, the media & politicians were using the number of 15 million.
Dirth Harry spend taxpayer money to ‘teach Emglish to illegals already here in Nevada” is more pandering from ‘the mortician’ & is an explicit admission that there are way too many illegals in Nevada & money from taxpayers is needed to teach the intruders English.
How about teaching English to the ghetto? Ebonics doesn’t work, either.
This could help pro-American/anti-Illegal Alien people...as the Illegal Alien Amnesty/Anti-American Bigotry crowd is in dispute over the 14th Amendment
Of course, the 14th Amendment change is just a smokescreen by Lindsey Graham and the pro-illegal/anti-American crowd.
Secure the Border.....Deport the Illegal Aliens. If you are not in support of that, you support Amnesty
Why do you think many of us thought Bush was a Rino. ;)
I’m not so concerned with changing the 14th amendment. I just think the law should be that just because you are a US citizen but a child of foreign parents, does not mean you need to stay here. Just come back when you’re 18.
SHHH the Bushies on this forum don’t like when the TRUTH is told about their Precious BUSHIES!
Once more, we see the problem with the GOP, written brightly for anyone to envision.
Birthright citzenship is a distortion of the original intent of the Constitution which was to assure American born slaves were not deprived of their rights - not as an entry point for illegal invaders.
The more of these birthrighters born and given citzenship here, the more difficult it will be to stop this.
At the risk of angering people with whom I agree essentially, there is still the issue of what do you do with kids who were born here, were raised here, speak English, and know no other culture or society but ours? Can we in good conscience deport them to what is essentially a country foreign to them?
We will probably have to “grandfather in” kids born here over a certain age, and make it clear to their parents that they themselves are not considered citizens unless and until they go through accepted normal channels and become citizens here the right way.
“Clarification of the 14th amendment is sorely needed.”
I think it’s the wrong fight at the wrong time. What’s sorely needed is strict enforcement of exisitng immigration laws, beginning with a secure border.
Jeb-Bot Rubio and Jeb Nush love the amnesty invasion as does Connie Mack 3rd frat boy a*s.
Btw I once read that during the Reagan administration it was suggested that an end to anchor babies could be done through executive order but that Rudolph Giuliani had a hand in stopping the idea.
Lindsey Graham is using the 14th Amendment issue as a beard. He has no intention of seriously pursuing this and knows that it has little chance of succeeding. But, the more he talks it up the more he thinks it will make him look like an illegal immigration crusader.
It’s just more RINO smoke blown up our a$$es.
Amen on that ...
This country is so blasted self-absorbed, it's no wonder we PO so many people from other lands without so much as without realizing what we are doing.
With this nonsense you see why Republicans fell out of favor and power.
It was the Bush/Rove policy of open borders and amnesty carried out by these water boys of the Bush administration in 2006/2007 that started the demise of the Republicans. A tidal wave of opposition from the people who melted down the Congress’ switchboards later manifested itself as the end of support for Republicans who no longer seemed to represent them, but the special interests of the elite.
That event was the start of the Tea Party, not the Rick Santelli rants two years later.
Now when it seems that some Republicans have finally gotten smart about following the will of the people, Frum and these clowns want to go back to the proven loser policies on amnesty that toppled the Republicans once before.
Rather than pander to the illegal alien hispanic crowds, why not turn the whole damn country over to them and get it over with. Then we can enjoy the Third World lifestyle that they created in Latin America, or Los Angeles. Of course, Frum, Gerson, and their ilk will live in luxury in their gated communities unaffected by the chaos and corruption around them.
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