Wisconsin governor and Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker dismissed the birthright citizenship debate as a distraction Sunday and said securing the border and enforcing the laws already on the books should take priority over debates on the 14th Amendment.
Well enforced laws and a secure border would take “care of almost every one of the other issues [with immigration] out there,” including birthright citizenship, Walker told host Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“Whether it’s talking about the 14th Amendment or anything else, until we secure the border and enforce the laws, we shouldn’t be talking about any other issue out there,” said Walker.
Politicians are “trying to distract” from the fact that they “have made promises … hey haven’t been able to fulfill,” Walker said.
Reality show star and Republican front-runner Donald Trump rocketed the discussion of birthright citizenship to the forefront of the immigration debate when he said he would do away with it if elected.
Walker has flip-flopped on the issue of birthright citizenship the last few weeks — he first told NBC News he wanted to eliminate birthright citizenship, before telling ABC last Sunday he wouldn’t want to repeal the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to anyone born inside the U.S.
Wisconsin’s governor reiterated Sunday that he was not interested in “changing the Constitution.”
Unhappy with critics who charged that Walker had flip-flopped on the issue, the governor said he came to a better “understanding [of] how people really live in their lives.”
“This isn’t just about a litmus test of issues,” he said.
