America
Trump, Bobby Jindal want 'anchor babies' deprived of citizenship
By
By Arun KumarWashington, Aug 22
Republican frontrunner
Donald Trump and low-polling Bobby Jindal both want "anchor babies" or
US-born children of illegal immigrants deprived of automatic citizenship
guaranteed by the US constitution for 150 years.
There are an
estimated 11 million illegal or "undocumented" immigrants as the
"politically correct" would have it, including about 300,000 from India,
and both presidential hopefuls have vowed to stop more from sneaking in
- Trump with a wall and Jindal somehow.
Tough-talking Trump, who
has quickly leapt to the top of the crowded Republican field with his
rants against the political establishment, asserted Friday that the US
Congress could end the guarantee of citizenship for US-born children of
illegal immigrants.
"The 14th Amendment - I was right on it. You
can do something with it, and you can do something fast," Trump told
thousands of people gathered to hear the real estate mogul speak at a
huge rally in a stadium in Alabama Friday.
"In the case of other
countries, including Mexico, they don't do that. It doesn't work that
way. ... We're the only place just about that's stupid enough to do it,"
he said at the rally in the midst of several key Southern states.
Ratified
on July 9, 1868, the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution granted
citizenship to "all persons born or naturalised in the United States",
which included former slaves recently freed.
"We're going to
build a wall," to stop illegal immigrants coming in from its
neighbouring Mexico, repeated Trump, who has raised the hackles of his
liberal critics by calling them "rapists" and "criminals".
Trump's
campaign had moved Friday's "pep rally" from the city's Civic Centre,
which seats about 4,000, to the 43,000-seat Ladd-Peebles Stadium in
Mobile in anticipation of the huge crowd. By most accounts Trump's
enthusiastic supporters filled about half of it.
Meanwhile,
Jindal, who was born three months after his pregnant mother came to the
US from India, on Friday joined Trump in calling for the end of
birthright citizenship.
But Louisiana's two-term governor, who is
languishing at the bottom of most polls, made sure to point out at an
event in Columbus, Ohio that when his parents immigrated, "they came to
this country legally".
Returning to his now familiar theme about
being tired of hyphenated Americans, Jindal said anyone who wants to
come to the US must "learn English, adopt our values, and when you get
here, roll up your sleeves and get to work".
"Immigration without
assimilation is invasion," he declared at a Defending the American
Dream Summit hosted by conservative Americans for Prosperity.
Claiming
that he could secure the southern border with Mexico within six months
of becoming president, he said officials in Washington should be fired
for making excuses about securing the border.
"A smart
immigration policy will make our country stronger.. a dumb immigration
policy will make it weaker," he said. "Today, we have a dumb immigration
policy."
Most Republican presidential hopefuls have hardened their stance on immigration in the wake of Trump's climb to the top.
Even
establishment favourite Jeb Bush courted controversy Thursday when
borrowing a phrase used by Trump, he referred to US-born children of
undocumented immigrants as "anchor babies".
In a testy exchange
with reporters in New Hampshire, Bush said that he doesn't believe the
expression is offensive and blamed Democrats for perpetuating the notion
that it is an insult.
"Do you have a better term?" he asked one
reporter. "You give me a better term and I'll use it," said Bush, who
otherwise advocates comprehensive immigration reforms and has said "that
people born in this country ought to be American citizens".
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])