McConnell Calls For Hearings To Change Birthright Citizenship

We have so many important issues to address - the economy, the wars, global warming/climate change. Immigration is such a non-issue. Illegal immigrants are being demonized without basis. They don't adversely affect wages in the US to a significant degree, and crime appears to drop in areas with notable illegal immigration populations. We are blaming them for our woes, and it will end up diverting a lot of money and energy without a good return unless the outraged screaming is moderated.

The GOP has no answers to the real problems we face, so they're going to settle for ginning up their base with racism.

It is incredible the manic egos and conceit these idiotic senators have to even think they are intelligent enough to overide men such as Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Washington, Jay, Madison, Hamilton, et al. Ammendments are meant to be for the common good, not to satisfy a bigoted small minded group! There have been too many suggestions to bastardize the Constitution in the Senate already. They are sworn to protect the Constitution not screw with it!

Perhaps we should have hearings into the citizenship status of anyone, especially Senators and Congressmen, who's ancestors fought for the Confederacy. That being an act of treason, would have resulted in revocation of citizenship, which, if they insist on repeal of the 14th amendment, would result in loss of citizenship for them. And a vast improvement in the quality of our Congress.

BUT IF WE DON'T DO THIS THEY WILL BEHEAD ME IN THE DESERT!

Jan Brewer said so and her cajones don't lie.

The 14th Amend. doesn't say anything about immigration status. The case interpreting the 14th Amendment citizenship clause is United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898). In this case Wong was born in SF, CA in 1873 of Chinese immigrant parents. He left the US in 1895 to visit China and when he returned later was denied entry into the US, although he had conducted a similar visit in 1890 and had been re-admitted to the US. The SCOTUS ruled in Wong that he was a citizen of the USA (under the birth clause of the 14th Amend.) and had to be re-admitted to the USA.
There are two important facts to consider not addressed by the Court. 1) During the settlement of the colonies, immigrants arrived freely, limited only by the cost of travel, diseases, and the harsh environment found in the colonies. In the years before the American Revolution, immigrants came to the colonies from England, France, Germany and Holland. Immigration was still favored after the revolution because the colonies needed more people for labor and development. It is important to note that extensive federal legislation dealing with immigration was not enacted for some time later. Unrestricted immigration was still desirable as a means for obtaining labor and achieving growth as a nation. Discontent with an open immigration policy increased with the tremendous rate of immigration and with the change in the composition of immigrants. Between 1820 and 1880, political and economic conditions brought millions of Irish immigrants to the United States. German Catholic immigrants also came during the 1840s. Later Italians and east Europeans arrived in equally substantial numbers. American society did not accept these mostly Catholic immigrants, and movements to limit immigration began to form. However, laws excluding classes of people did not appear until the 1870's and 1880's, with the Chinese (and Asians) the main target. Therefore the concept of "illegal" was a relatively new concept in the late 19th century. One final point to note is that former slaves were here "legally" however reluctantly.
2) Thus, Wong was born of parents LEGALLY in this country in 1873. It was not until 1875 (Page Act) that the US started to EXCLUDE some potential immigrants. The law classified as undesirable any individual from China who was coming to America to be a contract laborer, any Asian woman who would engage in prostitution, and all people considered to be convicts in their own country. In 1882 Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Act was the 1st significant restriction on free immigration in U.S. history. The Act excluded Chinese "skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining" from entering the country for ten years under penalty of imprisonment and deportation. The few Chinese non-laborers who wished to immigrate had to obtain certification from the Chinese government that they were qualified to immigrate, which was difficult or impossible to obtain.
Thus, SCOTUS NEVER addressed the question of citizenship for those in the country ILLEGALLY. A Constitutional challenge to the 14th Amendment to address illegal immigrants is NOT out of the question, and certainly the citizenship clause is not black letter law in this regard. However, I would be quite surprised if SCOTUS would rule this way if presented the opportunity. At the same time it is not beyond the realm of possibility with the current conservative activist make-up of the Court.

Sigh, why do the democrats let the minority party call the shots?

Is it the media?

So the calculation is ... fueling a resurgent, emboldened racism/xenophobia among the white majority is worth the price of permanently alienating all non-white/first-generation immigrants, etc.? Putting aside how revolting this is morally, I don't think that's a wise political calculation for the GOP. Maybe worth a couple extra seats in Nov 2012, but the Republican party will live in infamy for much of the population (and their children).

Nobody in the commentariat seems to have really grasped the full scope of the Republican meta-narrative for 2010. Scary "Black Panther" men and unmarried welfare queens who need Big Brother to take care of them. Illegal aliens. Islam=dangerous terrorist cult, not a real religion at all, like Christianity is. And all these people need to be deprived of their rights ASAP because, as one of our great legal thinkers so memorably put it, "they ha[ve] no rights a white man is bound to respect."

It all boils down to an effort to convince middle and working class white voters, 2/3 of whom are regular Republican voters, that all the shitty stuff that's happened to them since 2000--the 2,000+ dollar average real income decline they suffered during the Bush "boom," the collapse of their home value which they used as an ATM to offset the income decline or stagnation, the job losses after the meltdown that occurred even as the people most responsible for it fattened themselves at the taxpayer's teat--is the fault of scary brown people.

It's not because of a catastrophic tax, trade and fiscal policy that is deliberately and systematically designed to redistribute wealth from the bottom 90% to the top 10% (and, mostly the top 1 or 2%). It's not because the GOP's constant slashing the top marginal rates income and inheritance tax rates gave the Sam Waltons' of the world an incentive to take advantage of globalization to transfer jobs to China and put the difference between what they used to pay American workers and what they now pay for psuedo-slave labor in China in their gigantic pockets.

No, it's not because the people who run the Republican and Tea Parties are bloodsucking parasites who you've been eagerly letting bleed you, well, white, for the last thirty years. No, that's all just conspiracy minded nonsense.

No, clearly, its because the country is being invaded, yea, infested even with smelly, ignorant, violent brown people who are here to steal what you've got, kill you and, most likely, rape your little white daughters.

The most pathetic thing about how well it's working is that it's the oldest con in the book, run by bloodsucking elites of greater and lesser malignancy throughout history.

They run the scam because it works and it works because of an unfortunate little quirk in our DNA that makes us hostile and suspicious when we encounter "other." Worked out great for us when we were busy fighting off competitors for our hunter gatherer territories, and, probably, exterminating the Neanderthals and, possibly, the last lingering traces of Homo Erectus, but is rather problematic now that we're "civilized."

I would love to see the Democratic party step aside and let the GOP run with this meme. By all means, let's have this national conversation and show just how closely regarded the Constitution is with this bunch. "Oh, we like and defend the Constitution, we just want to undo *this* part right here." I hope they can bring it to a vote so they can be on record exposing themselves an deconstitutionalists (I think I just made that up). Then, the Dems can play the role of spoiler when they vote not just NO, but NO FUCKING WAY.

Perhaps in about fifty more years, when the hispanic voters outnumber the non hispanic voters two to one, they can become nostalgic rings banning pure white folks from even gathering...

We've already isolated ourselves from the rest of the civilized world with our uncivilized behaviior and war mongering, we might just as well complete the task and isolate ourself from each other...

Can you say "political suicide?" That's EXACTLY what the GOP will have committed if they go ahead with their attempt to alter the Fourteenth Amendment.

In the first place, there's NO WAY IN HELL that they'll get the two-thirds majorities is both houses of Congress required to pass the damn thing. It would almost certainly be blocked in the Senate by a Democratic filibuster.

Secondly, the racism that is motivating the move to push for this thing is so transparent that one can only wonder how much longer it will be before Maine Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe quit the GOP. I can't imagine their wanting to have anything to do with this.

Third, this is clearly a last-ditch, anti-Latino attempt to postpone the inevitable: The white population's loss of majority status in this country -- and with it, their power and privilege -- by the middle of this century, as the Latino birth rate continues to grow and ALREADY has outstripped the white birth rate, according to the Census Bureau.

Fourth, messing with the 14th Amendment will constitute the final, absolute betrayal of the principles that the Party of Lincoln was founded upon in 1854, for it was the Republicans who passed the 14th Amendment in the first place when they controlled Congress in the post-Civil War reconstruction period, to bestow full citizenship rights to the emancipated slaves and their descendants.

Not to mention the ultimate slap in the face to its first black national chairman, Michael Steele. But that's beside the point.

Bottom line: Mess with the 14th Amendment, Republicans, and I can guaran-damn-tee you that you'll never become the majority party ever again, for you will have forever alienated every American who isn't white and every white American who believes in liberty, equality and justice for all.