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The debate moderators began by flashing a clip of former President Ronald Reagan, noting that he had supported the “idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and have lived here, even though some time back they may have entered illegally.”
But after heaping praise on Reagan broadly, the Republican candidates onstage made it clear how much they differed from him. Not long into the debate, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina said that President Biden should be “working to close our southern border because it is unsafe, wide open and insecure.”
In 1986, Reagan signed a law granting amnesty to nearly three million immigrants, something no Democrat or Republican has done since.
Ilia Calderón, the moderator from Univision, asked former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey whether he would support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, as he had as governor, or whether, as he had said as a presidential candidate in 2015, immigrants “should be tracked like FedEx packages.”
Mr. Christie said that because there had been no progress on adopting new immigration laws for more than a decade, there was no chance for anything other than treating the issue “like the law enforcement problem it is.” But he also gave a more expansive answer than many other candidates, suggesting that the country needed immigrants to fill jobs.
Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, suggested that she would stop providing aid to countries in Latin America until “we fix the immigration system” and “get the border secure.”
“Our money should be about keeping Americans safe,” she said.
Vivek Ramaswamy, the child of immigrants, repeated that he would “militarize the southern border” and end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants — a move that would certainly face legal challenges.
“The kid of a Mexican diplomat does not enjoy birthright citizenship,” he said. “Neither does the kid of an illegal migrant who broke the law to come here.”
Constitutional experts’ consensus on the children of undocumented immigrants is the opposite.
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