Doug Mataconis · · 5 comments

Lou Dobbs, the former CNN anchor, and outspoken opponent of illegal immigration, thinks that recent Republican calls for repealing the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship are a bad idea:

Senator Lindsey Graham took some by surprise when he called for eliminating birthright citizenship and changing the 14th Amendment — and Lou Dobbs took even more by surprise when he opposed Graham’s idea.

Dobbs, an outspoken advocate for tougher immigration laws, told me on “GMA” that changing the Constitution is “no way to proceed.”

“It is not in the interest of the American people, in my judgment at least, to roll back the laws…because the result may be inconvenient to some and their political views,” he said.

GOP Senators McCain, Kyl and McConnell have said they were open to hearings on this issue. The so-called “anchor babies,” children of illegal immigrants that are born in the United States, are an “immense problem,” according to Dobbs. But he advocated dealing with it “rationally.”

“I have no problem taking a look at any right and examining it so long as…the purpose is to bolster the public’s understanding and knowledge of those rights, which I think is needed,”” Dobbs said.

Do you think the 14th Amendment should be amended to remove birthright citizenship? Will there be a backlash against the GOP that will hurt them in November?

I can’t imagine a Constitutional amendment would ever pass (nor do I think it should), but I don’t think these calls for review will hurt the GOP on election day. Calls for hearings on an amendment that will never pass are likely to fire up activists likely to vote GOP without provoking the kind of backlash that will drive others away.