AP
August 17, 2015
Donald
Trump is dividing his Republican presidential rivals anew with his call
to rewrite the Constitution to crack down on millions of immigrants
living in the U.S. illegally,
and to force Mexico to pay for a better border fence. Scott Walker
embraced some of the plan Monday, but other contenders, such as Chris
Christie and Carly Fiorina, dismissed elements as unworkable.
Trump's
immigration proposal, his first formal policy plan since announcing his
candidacy in June, won praise Monday from the GOP's conservative tea
partyers, some of
whom favor changing the Constitution to reverse the "birthright
citizenship" guaranteed to anyone born in the United States, no matter
the status of their parents. At the same time, surveys show a majority
of Americans, including Republicans, support allowing
many immigrants in the U.S. illegally to stay.
Trump
leads his Republican rivals in national polls, and his proposal quickly
reverberated within the party, which has struggled with the issue of
immigration.
Party
leaders are determined to expand the GOP's appeal with Hispanics after
the 2012 election in which Mitt Romney won just 27 percent of the Latino
vote. But many Republicans
have adopted a hardline approach on immigrants, appealing to the
party's core voters who play an oversized role in nominating primaries
and caucuses.
Asked
at the Iowa State Fair on Monday if he supports building a wall along
the U.S. Mexican border, as Trump has proposed, Wisconsin Gov. Walker
gave a quick "yes," but
he declined to address whether he supports deporting children of
parents in the country illegally. "Going forward, the best thing we can
do is enforce the law," he said.
Walker,
who reversed his position in April on allowing a chance for legal
status for those in the country illegally, also gave mixed answers on
ending birthright citizenship.
Christie
said during a CNN interview that a wall or fence along parts of the
border, especially in more urban and difficult-to-control areas, was
conceivable, but "not
the entire border. Doesn't make any sense." Likewise, the New Jersey
governor is opposed to requiring Mexico to pay for the construction,
saying Trump's suggestion "makes no sense."
"And
this is not negotiation of a real estate deal, OK. This is
international diplomacy and it's different," Christie said, noting
Trump's line of business. Former Hewlett-Packard
CEO Carly Fiorina called Trump's wall plan, "completely unrealistic."
Trump wasn't flinching Monday.
"The
wall will work," he said when he arrived for jury duty in New York and a
passer-by at the courthouse asked about the idea. He spent much of the
day like other prospective
jurors, filling out forms and waiting to see if he would be picked. In
the end, he wasn't.
Like
Trump's early derogatory campaign statements about immigrants, his new
plan has lit up angry conservatives. But it also has annoyed Republicans
who see the nation's
growing Latino population as an opportunity to demonstrate sensitivity
to minorities who have voted overwhelmingly Democratic in recent
presidential elections.
Tea
party movement co-founder Mark Meckler said Trump's "position on
deportation generally reflects what likely voters think. Trump is
dealing head-on with the difficult
issues while more establishment candidates fret over focus groups and
polls."
Trump
also is calling for eliminating federal aid to "sanctuary cities," such
as San Francisco, where local officials have decided not to use their
police to enforce some
federal immigration laws. The position is also supported by former
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
Like
Christie, however, Bush differs sharply with Trump on other aspects of
immigration policy. Though he didn't chime in specifically on Trump's
new proposal, Bush supports
allowing people in the country illegally who have not committed major
crimes, who work and follow a course such as learning English and paying
fines, to stay in the United States.
In
a late July Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 64 percent of Americans
said they support either a path to permanent legal status or citizenship for immigrants in the
country illegally. According to the poll, a small majority of
Republicans fall into the same category.
South
Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, also speaking at the fair, called Trump's
proposal "gibberish," but warned it also sends a hostile signal toward
Latinos voters.
"You're
not going to get 11 million people and drive them back out of this
country," he said. "That's just not practical. That's going to kill the
Republican Party."
Though
Ohio Gov. John Kasich supports building a wall, he, like Bush supports
maintaining birthright citizenship and allowing a pathway to legal
status for immigrants.
"They
are a very important part of most of our communities," Kasich said in
South Carolina. "For the bulk of them, they are God-fearing, good,
hardworking people, and
they are a part of our country now."
Fiorina
said to change birthright citizenship would be rigorous. "It would take
passing a constitutional amendment to get that changed. This is part of
our 14th Amendment,
and so honestly I think we should put all of our energies, all of our
political will over finally getting the border secured and fixing the
legal immigration system."
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