In yet another demonstration of how low the GOP has sunk, this week Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing for hearings on whether the United States should continue to grant birthright citizenship as required by the 14th Amendment. TPM's Josh Marshall is right to call the move "pure theater." Practically, it's nearly impossible to do. Abolishing birthright citizenship would require a new constitutional amendment, which in turn requires supermajority votes in both houses of Congress and three-fourths of the states to ratify it. Given how tough it is to amend the Constitution -- or for that matter to get much of anything through Congress these days -- we can safely file the plan to end birthright citizenship under "election year B.S." But this hasn't been the case in most of the other developed countries when ending birthright citizenship has been proposed.
In Ireland, for example, a whopping 80 percent of the public voted in 2004 to end a near-century-long tradition of constitutionally guaranteed citizenship by birth via a national referendum. The new law made it a requirement for a parent to be a permanent resident in order for citizenship to be granted to a child born on Irish soil. In New Zealand, which like the United States bills itself as an immigrant haven, the parliamentary government ended unrestricted birthright citizenship in 2006. The New Zealand Internal Affairs website explained the change, stating that "a person cannot travel to New Zealand on a temporary permit solely to give birth and gain New Zealand citizenship for the child." The nefarious "anchor baby" conspiracy theory exists in Oceania as well, it seems.
But it's important not to forget that it's not Americans' love of liberty that's stopping the Republican Party's out-of-character desire to follow a precedent set by other countries. It's the Constitution, and the staggering number of veto points preventing its modification. Veto points haven't been getting a lot of love from liberals these past few months, but in the case of the United States' commitment to birthright citizenship, it's the Constitution protecting us from "We the People."
-- Nicolas Mendoza
