Translated from America’s Voice en Español.
Once upon a time, it looked like two Republican senators had enough common sense to want to fix their party’s relationship with Latino voters and the Hispanic community. These senators frequently faced attacks from their Republican companions for standing up for their “principles” on such an explosive issue as immigration.
But now, it’s clear that Lindsey Graham and John McCain—Republican senators from South Carolina and Arizona, respectively—have stalled their support for a comprehensive immigration reform bill, refusing to budge despite repeated requests for support, and started parroting the Republican refrain “secure the border first.”
At least they’d steered clear of proposing that the Fourteenth Amendment be changed to deny birthright citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants. The section guaranteeing that anyone born or naturalized in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction is a citizen is part of the bedrock of the Constitution.
Until recently, when Graham said that the amendment might have to be brought up to date: “I’m looking at the laws that exist and see if it makes sense today.”
Of course, it seems that Graham had one message in English for Fox News, and another in Spanish for Univisión, where he said he would only consider the proposal once Congress has addressed what to do with the millions of undocumented immigrants already living among us.
McCain, for his part, supports “the idea” of holding hearings on the topic—an idea that has been proposed by a growing number of members of the Republican congressional leadership.
