Anchor Baby: Donald Trump Establishes Immigration Litmus Test

Politico’s Seung Min Kim describes Donald Trump’s immigration proposal to end birthright citizenship as “a new litmus test on the right.”

From Politico:

Donald Trump has singlehandedly changed the standard for what it takes to be considered conservative on immigration, as one GOP presidential contender after another joins his call to end birthright citizenship.

Seemingly settled more than a century ago with the passage of the 14th Amendment and an 1898 Supreme Court ruling, the policy that automatically grants citizenship to basically anyone born on U.S. soil is suddenly driving a rift through the 2016 GOP presidential field — and triggering heartburn among conservative figures concerned about a backlash from Latinos in the general election.

Though some of Trump’s more mainstream Republican opponents, such as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, have quickly distanced themselves from the business mogul’s stance, several other prominent candidates, including Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, have embraced it.

And that’s distressingly bad news to conservatives who say the spectacle is setting up the party for a repeat of Mitt Romney’s dismal showing among Latino voters in 2012. The division within the GOP over whether to provide immigrants here illegally with a pathway to citizenship has given way to a new litmus test on the right.

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