Alberto Gonzales: Changing the 14th Amendment won’t solve our immigration crisis

Forner U.S. Attorney Alberto Gonzales in an op/ed in the Washington Post (“Changing the 14th Amendment won’t solve our immigration crisis“) opposes the proposed abolition of birthright citizenship.  In so doing, he advocates for comprehensive immigration reform and chides the Obama administrtaion for the failure of its enactment (at least to this point):

” Even my apolitical and saintly 78-year-old mother wonders whether the Democrats are keeping this issue [immigration reform] on the table for political reasons, hoping that Republicans will propose enforcement measures that alienate Hispanic voters.”

As a lawyer, I must say that is an odd grassy-knoll kind of theory of causation.   Indeed, Republicans could defeat that tack easily by voting for immigration reform rather than “alienat[ing] Hispanic voters” by insisting on more immigration enforcement, eliminating birhright citizenship, supporting laws like Arizona’s SB 1070, opposng the DREAM Act, etc.

KJ