Mike Huckabee suggested that he would be in favor of a law that would end birthright citizenship to children born to non-American citizens in the United States.
Huckabee, appearing on the Hugh Hewitt Show Friday, argued “it would be helpful for there to be legislation defining what the jurisdiction clause means” in the 14th Amendment.
Hugh Hewitt: You bring up the 14th Amendment, governor. I’ve asked a lot of the candidates this week if they believe the 14th Amendment confers birthright citizenship upon anyone born in this country, even if their parent are here without color of law. What do you think? Does the 14th Amendment protect birthright citizenship?
Mike Huckabee: It has been the practice that we’ve had for over 100 years. I think if we’re going to change that, then we need to be able to declare why we’re going to change it. And I know that there’s the language about jurisdiction, there has been questions about if a diplomat’s child was born here, does that make that person a citizen? So I don’t think that it’s an ironclad-type decision, but it would be helpful for there to be legislation defining what the jurisdiction clause means. I don’t think a constitutional amendment is likely to happen, but I don’t think it has to be a constitutional amendment. And the bigger question is not that this is happening. The bigger question is Americans are disgusted with the immigration process because people are using the good nature of the American way of life to cheat our system and to benefit from it, and I think people are sick of that. And they want the law to be applied equally and fairly.
Hewitt: Yesterday, Marco Rubio said he wouldn’t support a law to abrogate birthright citizenship, but you would, to be clear?
Huckabee: I would, because I think when you see even advertisements in China, advertising essentially “birth tourism,” where people are able to purchase packages so they fly to the U.S., have their baby in the U.S. so it has dual citizenship, and these aren’t people who are impoverished, looking for a Medicaid payment. These are very wealthy people who are coming here so their child will in essence be put a foot down and say, “I have American citizenship,” dual citizenship, American and Chinese. And I just don’t see how we can sit back and say that that is perfectly OK.
