Republicans are alienating the Hispanic vote, and shooting themselves in the foot.
Per the U.S. constitution, a person born in the United States is a U.S. citizen. Following Donald Trump’s stated plans for immigration, the other GOP presidential candidates rushed to tell the public about their own tough immigration plans. Many of them, Rand Paul, Chris Christie, Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal, Scott Walker, and Rick Santorum, have spoken out against birthright citizenship. Republicans have recently begun publicly using the term anchor babies to describe birthright citizenship.
The term anchor babies is an insulting term. It focuses on an infant, innocent of any wrongdoing, and attaches blame for the behavior the child’s parents. It is assumed the mother became pregnant in the hopes of gaining U. S. citizenship. The term, “anchor babies” is described by Google as,
“an offensive noun used in referring to children born to noncitizen mothers in a country which has birthright citizenship, especially when viewed as providing an advantage to family members seeking to secure citizenship or legal residency.”
On the issue of birthright citizenship, while some Republicans may disagree, the majority of legal scholars believe it is settled law, stated clearly in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. As a constitutional amendment it would be remarkably difficult to overturn, and seems quite unlikely. The flurry of hard line positions on birthright citizenship shows the power of front runner Donald Trump. His outrageous immigration plans have initiated a competition in the 2016 GOP race to take a tough stand on illegal immigration. The question for the other Republicans is how to take a tough, but still acceptable stance for a general election. Republican candidates seem to be having some problems deciding what is an acceptable position, though there has been little hesitation in using the term anchor babies.
Both Florida Senator Marco Rubio and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush have defended birthright citizenship, but they have said more needs to be done about women who might come into the U.S. expressly to have children. It’s unclear exactly what they would, or could, actually do about the impending threat of anchor babies.
When asked about his use of the term, Jeb Bush responded,
“If there’s abuse, if people are bringing, pregnant women are coming in to have babies simply because they can do it, then there ought to be greater enforcement. That’s the legitimate side of this. Better enforcement so that you don’t have these, you know, ‘anchor babies,’ as they’re described, coming into the country.”
When pressed on his use of the phrase, anchor babies, Governor Bush defended it.
“If there’s another term that I come up with, I’m happy to hear it,” he said Thursday.
Hillary Clinton jumped at the opportunity to provide a reasonable answer, tweeting, “They’re called babies.”
