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Republicans called for building more border wall, surging more security personnel to the border and stripping birthright citizenship from children of illegal immigrants as they found common ground in Wednesday night’s presidential candidates’ debate.
As Fox Business and Univision, which hosted the debate, showed real-time video from Texas of migrants being processed as they streamed into the country, the candidates blasted President Biden’s handling of the issue.
“Joe Biden should not be on the picket line. He should be on the southern border,” said Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, referring to the president’s visit Tuesday with striking auto workers.
The candidates generally backed a host of policies pioneered by former President Trump, including the border wall and the “Remain in Mexico” program that pushed illegal border crossers back into Mexico to wait for their immigration court hearings.
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said she would add 25,000 more agents to the Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and would “defund” sanctuary cities that protect illegal immigrants from deportation by refusing to cooperate with ICE.
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy said he would “militarize” the southern border and end foreign aid to Mexico and Central America to prod them to do more to stop people flowing north.
Mr. Ramaswamy and Mr. Scott also endorsed the idea of stripping birthright citizenship from children of illegal immigrants, saying they believe the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which speaks to the issue, does not require it for illegal immigrants.
“Clearly it was designed for slavery and not for illegal immigration,” Mr. Scott said.
Legal experts are divided, though most scholarship seems to tilt toward the idea that the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of citizenship would apply to children of illegal immigrants.
Still, it has become a popular crusade among conservatives.
Mr. Trump flirted with the idea of trying to end birthright citizenship for illegal immigrants while he was in office, but never acted on the idea. As a candidate now, he has said he would pursue it.
Former Vice President Mike Pence said he’s the best candidate to handle illegal immigration because he was with Mr. Trump when they solved the border problems in 2019, mostly ending catch-and-release of illegal immigrants.
“I know how to do it and we will do it again,” Mr. Pence said.
But former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said the Trump folks bungled things, building only “52 miles of wall.”
That was a reference to how much wall was erected in areas where there were no barriers before. In total, the Trump administration erected more than 450 miles of wall, most of it in places where either an outdated fence or a vehicle barrier had existed before.
Mr. Christie distanced himself from past support for a broad legalization of illegal immigrants, saying chaos at the border over the last 13 years has ruined chances for that kind of agreement right now.
He said the federal government must first stiffen its spine on enforcement, deploying the National Guard to help the Border Patrol.
“If you come here illegally, we will apprehend you and we will send you back across the border from which you came,” Mr. Christie said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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