Is Donald Trump channeling a much younger Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., when he charges the anchor-baby law is damaging America?
Perhaps Jeb Bush is getting his talking points from the old files of the Senate minority leader?
Both of those candidates for the GOP nomination for president recently have cited the term “anchor babies” in reference to illegal aliens whose births on American soil give them automatic U.S. citizenship and eventually the possibility of bringing into the country their entire families.
They’ve both been criticized for it, and both have defended their use of the term.
But Reid long has been an advocate of a more open border, which is what makes comments uncovered in a 1993 video segment significant.
Reid was criticizing the fact that illegal aliens are rewarded for having babies in the United States.
“If making it easy to be an illegal alien isn’t enough, how about offering a reward for being an illegal immigrant?” Reid asked. “No sane country would do that, right?
“Guess again,” he continued, “If you break our laws by entering this country without permission and give birth to a child, we reward that child with U.S. citizenship and guarantee of full access to all public and social services this society provides.
“And that’s a lot of services,” he said. “Is it any wonder that two-thirds of the babies born at taxpayer expense at county-run hospitals in Los Angeles are born to illegal alien mothers?”
The video was found by the Right Scoop website.
See the 1993 video:
[jwplayer JbEMonnZ]
A surprised BizPacReview said: “Good Lord, he even whines about two-thirds of children being born to illegal alien mothers in Los Angeles County!! I thought that kind of racism only came out of Republicans.”
The Right Scoop said: “Couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Except this was said in 1993 by Harry Reid who recently said the GOP had ‘taken leave of their senses’ by daring to question birthright citizenship, and therefore he couldn’t understand how ‘anyone of Hispanic descent could be a Republican.'”
Last week, both Trump and Bush used the term and then defended its use while asking whether a better term was available.
On Monday, Bush continued to fend off criticism for his use of “anchor babies,” calling it ludicrous that people would consider it an insult.
“Nothing about what I’ve said should be viewed as derogatory toward immigrants at all,” the GOP presidential candidate said after meeting with local officials near the U.S.-Mexico border in McAllen, Texas.
“This is all how politics plays. And by the way, I think we need to take a step back and chill out a little bit as it relates to the political correctness that somehow you have to be scolded every time you say something,” he said.
NBC News reported Bush described the term as something specific to a special kind of fraud case involving mothers who travel to the U.S. solely to get citizenship for their unborn child.
The current debate over the term was prompted by the release of Trump’s immigration plan.
He is calling for ending “birthright citizenship.”
He said it “remains the biggest magnet for illegal immigration.”
“By a 2-to-1 margin, voters say it’s the wrong policy, including [Democratic Senate Minority Leader] Harry Reid, who said ‘no sane country’ would give automatic citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants.”
Retired surgeon Dr. Ben Carson told ABC News that it’s a stupid concept.
“We can keep families together,” he said. “If they came here and did that, we can still keep them together by packaging them up and sending them back.”
Trump’s immigration plan would include the simple steps of securing the nation’s borders and then moving to deport anyone who is not in the country legally.
