In his bid to become the nation’s Stable Genius No. 2, the kind of president who leads with divisive bravado, threatening to reshape the nation’s diverse demographics in God-like fashion, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has upped the ante on immigrant loathing.
“Stop the invasion!” his bellicose immigration platform roars.
No xenophobic vote shall go untapped — even if it means pretend-shredding of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the right to be an American if you’re born in this country.
Shamelessly borrowing from Donald Trump’s 2015 campaign, DeSantis vowed Monday to “take action to end the idea that the children of illegal aliens are entitled to birthright citizenship if they are born in the United States.”
He so pledged while outlining an immigration plan — borrowed from Trump — before supporters and journalists in Eagle Pass, a Texas border town. The ex-president also vowed early in his first campaign to end birthright citizenship “on Day 1” via executive order.
The dubious claim that a president can simply wipe away a constitutional right didn’t come to fruition, did it?
But Trump’s acerbic anti-immigrant rhetoric did notoriously inspire the beating of a homeless Hispanic man in Boston — and brought the condemnation of Republicans like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who now supports equally anti-immigrant DeSantis.
No change
Trump never pivoted from his rhetoric, hate speech so normalized and openly racist that the wife of his policy architect, Stephen Miller, famously said while visiting Miami: “If you come to America, you should assimilate. Why do we need to have Little Havana?”
There won’t be any pivot from DeSantis either, so media can stop creating false expectations that there will be one. With DeSantis, it can only get worse. He’s willing to crack down on everything, from voting to womb rights.
As DeSantis demonstrated in Florida, the U.S. Constitution, for him, is pliable.
Some rights, like the right to bear arms, are sacred and expandable, no matter the body count. If the nation were to be shaped the way he has said he envisions Florida, every adult would walk around packing high-caliber heat.
But other constitutional rights — particularly, those that benefit immigrants and minorities — are expendable if they pave his road to the White House.
As president, DeSantis would have the same power as Trump did to erase birthright — none.
The 14th Amendment
Even with a conservative majority in the U.S. Supreme Court, not everyone on the job is ready to compromise long-standing laws that hold up our representative democracy to please the latest demagogue in power.
Who is entitled to citizenship is clearly spelled out in the 14th Amendment: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the state wherein they reside.”
In a 1898 case that tested the right of a child born to Chinese parents, the court held that a baby born in the United States, even when parents were ineligible to become naturalized citizens, was entitled to all the rights and privileges of citizenship.
But 125 years after that affirmation, opportunist DeSantis wants to pull the same con on voters that Trump did.
On the Republican campaign trail, birthright does double duty: It appeals to a scapegoat-seeking, nationalist base incapable of looking inward in search of solutions. And, it frightens non-white people to the core. Fear keeps many immigrants and their children in the shadows, working at low wages for unscrupulous Americans, instead of living to their maximum potential in the United States.
But more frail than birthright citizenship is DeSantis’ precious Second Amendment, crafted in the age of muskets, not paramilitary rifles aimed at schoolchildren, shoppers and church-goers. It simply says: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
It’s way more ambiguous than the 14th, and if there is one that needs tweaking to address assault-weapon use, it’s the Second. Crush one as vital as birthright, and we open the door to another and another until we’re unrecognizable as a nation.
Immigration & Florida
The blueprint for sound immigration reform from Congress isn’t embedded in the presidential platforms of ambitious politicians. Policy informed by data and best practices that balance national interests with humane treatment of asylum seekers and the undocumented is what the nation needs.
Republicans have ample time to evaluate primary candidates — DeSantis being one of three lousy Florida choices — hopefully, based on what they can deliver, not what’s falsely promised.
DeSantis is clearly treading on Trump territory. But his aggressive “Make America Florida” formula doesn’t seem to be helping his low poll numbers. His rise depends solely on whether Trump’s substantial legal troubles sideline him.
He certainly has pockets of the nation’s attention. But at home, DeSantis’ new, draconian anti-immigrant laws, effective this week, are already hurting businesses.
Isn’t the economy the No. 1 issue with voters?
Buyer beware of the ultra Trumpism brand DeSantis is selling.
