In a race to the bottom with
Donald Trump, Jeb! Bush—the GOP's immigrant-friendly grown-up in the race—embraced the nativist term "anchor babies" during a Wednesday interview with conservative radio host Bill Bennett, saying the government needed to prevent "abuse" of birthright citizenship. Caitlin MacNeal
reports:
"If there's fraud or if there's abuse, if people are bringing, pregnant women are coming in to have babies simply because they can do it, then there ought to be greater enforcement," Bush said. "That's the legitimate side of this. Better enforcement so that you don't have these, you know, 'anchor babies,' as they're described, coming into the country."
First of all ...
That was the easy part. But "greater enforcement"... what does that even mean? How's birthright citizenship not being "enforced" now? Jeb!, can you game this one out for us?
Should we be declining entry to all pregnant women? Should U.S. customs agents start forcibly administering pregnancy tests to every woman who wants to enter the U.S.? Kind of like that great policy known as the HIV travel ban revisited ... but for pregnant women.
Now there's some clear thinking. Jeb! with the solution no one thought of to a problem created by none other than the U.S. Constitution. Non-problem solved! Now, let's get back to your prescriptions for Iraq. ...