AP
By Nicholas Riccardi and Sergio Bustos
August 25, 2015
Jeb
Bush came to the Veterans of Foreign Wars post to talk about veterans’
affairs but two words hung over the town hall event in a Denver suburb
Tuesday: anchor babies.
That’s
the loaded term that Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump
has used to refer to U.S.-born children of people who come to the
country illegally. The
babies have automatic U.S. citizenship under the first section of the
14th Amendment to the Constitution, something that Trump and other foes
of high immigration levels decry.
As
Bush has detailed his position — supporting birthright citizenship but
concerned about the “birth tourism” industry that flies predominantly
wealthy Asian mothers to
the U.S. for childbirth — he’s been questioned more than the reality
show star. In response to a query at the town hall, Bush showed his
frustration.
“When
I was 17 years old, I fell in love with Columba Garnica de Bush,” he
said, referring to his Mexican-born wife. “It’s going to be really hard
for me to get lectured
to by anybody about the politics of immigration.”
Last
week, after Bush used the term “anchor babies” to say he was concerned
about some possible abuses of birthright citizenship, he came under fire
from the left. On
Monday, Bush said he was talking about some “Asian people” rather than
the vast majority of immigrants having children in the U.S. That drew
another round of criticism from Democrats.
On
Tuesday, Bush elaborated even further: “I was talking about a very
narrow system of fraud in which people are bringing in pregnant women to
have babies to exploit birthright citizenship.”
Bush
is describing a real phenomenon that has drawn concern from the Obama
administration. Earlier this year, federal authorities served search
warrants on three dozen
homes in California as part of an investigation into three businesses
that fly Chinese expectant mothers to the United States, put them up in
special hotels and deliver their children. Authorities filed charges
against 10 Chinese nationals who violated federal
court orders in the case and fled the country.
The
size of the “birth tourism” business is unknown. The Center for
Immigration Studies, a Washington think-tank that favors greater
restrictions on immigration, has estimated
that about 40,000 babies are born to birth tourists, most of whom
legally enter the country, annually.
Still,
Democrats continued to hammer Bush for the statements, indicating that
the party considers him a more likely eventual Republican nominee than
Trump, despite the
real estate mogul’s lead in the polls. In a hastily organized
conference call Tuesday afternoon, Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., did not
mention Trump but called on Bush to apologize to Asian Americans.
Rep.
Mike Honda, D-Calif., who represents the nation’s only majority-Asian
congressional district, called Bush’s statement “a slur against all
immigrants.”
Bush’s
own strong ties to immigrant communities — he speaks fluent Spanish —
threatens Democrats’ edge with Hispanics and Asians.
In
Colorado, many of the several dozen people at the town hall asked Bush
about immigration. One asked him to describe the difference between his
stance and Trump’s, a
contrast Bush has been increasingly trying to make. “Mr. Trump believes
you can just round people up,” said Bush, calling that idea contrary to
American values and not “practical.” Bush favors a path to legal status
for many of the people in the country illegally.
Still,
he can take tougher stances on immigration as well. He referred to last
year’s influx of Central American youth, who received a special review
of their immigration
status under a 2008 law against human trafficking signed by Bush’s
brother as president. Jeb Bush suggested the country should follow the
lead of yet another President Bush — his father, George H.W. Bush —
whose administration stemmed an influx of Haitian
refugees by imprisoning some and sending a signal they would not be
admitted.
Meanwhile,
Trump is gloating about Bush’s attempts to wrestle with the birthright citizenship issue. At a news conference Tuesday, Trump said Bush “is
taking tremendous
criticism for using the term anchor baby. No one cares when I use it
because they expect it.”
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
No comments:
Post a Comment