Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said Tuesday he doesn’t favor a repeal of birthright citizenship — one plank of an immigration proposal GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump rolled out earlier in the week.
“I’m open to doing things that prevent people from coming to the U.S. to take advantage of 14th Amendment, but I’m not in favor of repealing it,” Mr. Rubio, a GOP presidential contender, said at the Iowa State Fair, according to CNN.
The 2016 GOP field has had a mixed reaction to Mr. Trump’s plan, which would also triple the number of deportation officers and building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, as well as the call to end automatic citizenship for people born in the United States.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina slammed Mr. Trump’s immigration plan as “absolute gibberish” and “unworkable,” but said he was open to changing the policy on birthright citizenship.
“I think it’s a bad practice to give citizenship based on birth,” he told CNN.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal tweeted Monday: “We need to end birthright citizenship for illegal immigrants.”
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, meanwhile, appeared to be on Mr. Rubio’s side on the issue.
“There needs to be real efforts to deal with the abuse of these factories where people come in and have children to gain the citizenship for the children,” Mr. Bush said, according to The Washington Post. “But this is in the Constitution. The argument that it’s not I don’t think is the right view.”
State Fair attendees braved the rain to see Mr. Rubio speak on the Des Moines Register’s political soapbox Tuesday — an address the senator said he was cutting short because of the rain.
He laid out three priorities for the country: modernizing the economy, reforming higher education, and keeping America safe.
“I am saying this: we can’t keep graduating people with degrees that don’t lead to jobs,” he said. “That’s why I believe before you take out a student loan, schools should tell you how much people make when they graduate from that school with that degree.
“So you can decide whether it’s worth borrowing $50,000 to major in Greek philosophy,” he continued. “Because after all, the market for Greek philosophers has been very tight for 2,000 years.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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