If you’ve been paying attention to the politics of immigration this month, you’ve probably noticed:
1) GOP state and local officials, joined by Republicans in both the House and Senate, are trying to mainstream an extreme push to repeal the 14th Amendment. So much for being defenders of the Constitution, eh? The main targets of this push would be, of course, babies.
2) GOP leaders are growing increasingly worried about their party’s image with Latino voters, yet most are still ignoring calls from within their party to change the very poliices that Latinos care about — especially when it comes to issues like immigration. Jeb Bush argues that the GOP will need to win a substantial chunk (around 40%) of Latino votes to take the White House.
Despite these two developments, not a single prominent Republican legislator has come out to denounce this latest immigration nonsense by GOP politicians. Yesterday, U.S. Senators David Vitter (R-LA) and Rand Paul (R-KY) even gave the effort a boost by introducing a federal resolution backing it. This follows a Republican-organized conference in Miami that was supposed to “change the tone” of the way the GOP talks to Latino and immigrant voters. Clearly, Republicans in Washington didn’t get the memo.
Via Reform Immigration For America:
Senator Paul would do away with over 100 years of established precedent, overturn the Supreme Court, go expressly against original legislative intent and expressly violate the Constitution all while claiming the mantle of constitutional conservatism for himself and his Tea Party supporters. While it’s highly unlikely that any repeal movement would succeed, it is disturbing for a U.S. Senator to attempt to explicitly disregard the Constitution and his principles of constitutional conservatism to appease the most xenophobic voices in the Republican party.
In addition to being disturbing, it may just turn out to be irreparably damaging for the GOP’s image with the fastest-growing voting demographic in the country.
