At Thursday night's presidential debate in Orlando, Florida, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney hit Texas Gov. Rick Perry hard on the issue of immigration, characterizing his policies as encouraging illegal immigration. He specifically criticized Perry's support for a Texas law that allows children of illegal immigrants to qualify for in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities, likening it to a $100,00 educational discount. Perry defended the state policy as important for integrating future generations into the economic mainstream and said it's "heartless" to deny the children of illegal immigrants a chance at in-state tuition rates.
While the nation's political dialogue was hijacked over the issue of President Obama's birthplace, bubbling below the surface is the fact that a child of illegal immigrants born in the United States -- derided by some as "anchor babies" -- could one day be president.
The Constitution provides that only "natural born citizens" can be president. Never has this obscure restriction been more controversial; in spite of conclusive evidence that President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, "birthers" insist that he is ineligible because, they claim, he was really born in Kenya or Indonesia.
Florida's Senator-elect Marco Rubio says it would be a "mistake" to assume the U.S. is entering a Republican era.
We don't know who will be the Republican nominee for president next year. But we do know who stands a good chance of being the Republican nominee for vice president: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
Under our system, two things are crystal clear: Law enforcement agencies are required to treat children with more care than adults, and U.S. citizens have certain rights that are not to be abridged -- including the right to due process.
The serious and necessary debate on comprehensive immigration reform has been clouded by a debate over birthright citizenship.
In January, Rep. Steve King talks about his bill challenging birthright citizenship.
Many Latinos in the U.S. feel they're being targeted by a movement to change the 14th Amendment. Rafael Romo reports.
America's illegal immigration problem is out of control. To change this, we must better protect our borders, particularly the Mexican border, and ensure that only citizens and those in our country legally can be hired for jobs.
The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution clearly states that all people born in the United States are citizens. But some Republicans, in their wide-ranging attack on illegal immigrants, treat the amendment as an antique inheritance from the Civil War era that turned into an overly generous gift to generations of immigrants.
The Arizona Senate Judiciary Committee began holding hearings Monday afternoon on proposals to end birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment for U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants.
An Arizona state lawmaker's push to end the guarantee of birthright citizenship to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants on Saturday set off a protest hundreds of miles away in Pacoima, a Los Angeles suburb.
The Arizona state legislator who co-sponsored the latest immigration crackdown proposal -- to end citizenship for U.S.-born kids of illegal immigrants -- told CNN Friday that he hopes the legislation will provoke a lawsuit so that the U.S. Supreme Court "can end the controversy over the true meaning of the 14th Amendment's citizenship clause."
Alejandro Lopez, the son of Mexican immigrants who was born and grew up in Texas, says he's very concerned about the new movement to change the interpretation of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
There is nothing sadder than watching a political party turn itself inside out and violate its principles.
State lawmakers make birthright citizenship a new target in the fight over illegal immigration. CNN's Mary Snow has more.
A group of state legislators opposed to illegal immigration proposed a legislative "fix" Wednesday that would prevent children of illegal immigrants born in the United States from being citizens.
What goes around ... can blow up in your face.
Many Republicans say change the 14th Amendment but Mike Huckabee disagrees. So does Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat.
The latest constitutional amendment being floated by some Senate Republicans -- to deny citizenship to children born in the United States to unauthorized immigrants -- is not new.
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