McCain Wants Hearings on Brithright Citizenship
Sen. John McCain has announced that he wants hearings to be held on the possibility of changing the laws regarding birthright citizenship:
Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Tuesday added their voices to GOP calls for congressional hearings into altering the Constitution's 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants.
But when Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was asked if he was open to holding hearings on the topic, he told POLITICO: “No. Not before the election.”
Sessions, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said a re-examination of the 14th Amendment “deserves serious discussion” and that he supports hearings.
“People do not believe you should be able to break into America, have a baby and then the baby becomes a citizen, and the whole family says, ‘We can’t go home. My child is a citizen,’” Sessions told reporters on Capitol Hill. “It’s an unfair way to gain priority in the application for legal immigration into America.”
He also objected to foreigners who are obtaining U.S. visas, giving birth here, then returning to their home countries.
“I’m not sure exactly what the drafters of the [14th] Amendment had in mind,” Sessions said, “but I doubt it was that somebody could fly in from Brazil and have a child and fly back home with that child, and that child is forever an American citizen.”
“It very much is worthy of discussion,” Sessions added. “I think hearings is a good way to do it. I’d like to see somebody draft an amendment, and let’s see what it says.”
