Rick Santorum: End birthright citizenship
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, like Donald Trump, is calling for ending birth right citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants.
In a speech on Thursday in Washington, the former Republican senator unveiled his plan to limit the number of illegal and legal immigrants allowed into the country.
"I will propose we join every other developed country in the world save one, and put an end to the automatic citizenship for children born here to illegal immigrants," Santorum said.
But Santorum qualified his comments by acknowledging that there were good arguments to be made both for and against birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants, and said that ultimately, the decision rests with the courts. He also said that ending birthright citizenship is "not my priority" and that there were "other things that are much more pressing."
When asked how he would handle the separation of children who are American citizens from parents who are undocumented immigrants, Santorum compared the parents to thieves. The Pennsylvania Republican told the audience of reporters, "I mean it's like someone who robs a bank because they want to feed their family. Do I feel bad that they don't have enough money and felt the need to rob a bank and provide for their family? Of course I feel bad. We all feel bad. We hope people aren't in that situation where they have to break the law so they can make a better life for their family. But that doesn't obviate the fact that they broke the law, and there are consequences to breaking the law."
Santorum argued that children and parents were not being separated arbitrarily, placing blame on the parents who in his words, "put themselves in a position to jeopardize the relationship with their children."
In response, DNC spokesperson Holly Schulman slammed his comments as "shameful" and dismissed him along with the other Republicans candidates, stating, "The GOP is continuing to push the failed same policies that are offensive to Latinos and to all Americans."
Santorum's immigration plan calls for stopping illegal immigration by building additional walls and adding manpower at the border, pushing for legislation to require all businesses to use e-verify, and cracking down on sanctuary cities. He also raised the prospect of punishing Mexico, by not authorizing border crossing cards, if the Mexican government failed to cooperate.
Unlike other Republican presidential candidates like Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz, who have called for more immigrants to be allowed into the country for economic purposes, Santorum proposed shrinking the total number of legal immigrants as well, declaring "I believe that immigration can be a good thing but, as with anything there can be too much of a good thing."
In a question and answer session after his speech, Santorum went after the four current U.S. senators running for the Republican nomination. "You have a lot of folks out there who have very sharp elbows and tell you how everything is wrong and tell you why everything is broken...In fact most of the record of the people who are running, who are United States senators, are abject failures."
In contrast, he only offered muted criticism against Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump for the lack of specificity in his immigration plan.
Santorum, who is languishing at one percent in the latest CBS News poll, also answered a question about when he would consider ending his candidacy. He said the decision was, "like the Supreme Court when it comes to pornography: we'll know it when we see it."
Ending on a positive note, Santorum spoke about his daughter Bella who has a genetic disorder known as Trisomy 18, caused by an extra chromosome.
"I'm always amazed, one of the great things I took from the last campaign was the heart of the American people is still beating strong and wonderful and compassionate. I can't tell you the number of people from all walks of life, from all perspectives who in the last campaign asked that question. And did so in a heartfelt way. It renews your faith that as divided, as rancourous as this town is, there's still some commonality that we can use it as a touch stone that we might be able to do it in a more civil way."