Reid Once Tried to Roll Back Citizenship, Too

When Republicans started pushing to repeal or change the 14th amendment so that the children of illegal immigrants would not be citizens, Harry Reid said they’d “either taken leave of their senses or their principles.” Which is pretty awkward, because in 1993, Reid introduced an immigration reform bill that would have done the same thing, reports Kerry Picket of the Washington Times.

Reid wasn’t actually proposing repealing the amendment, but instead asserted that Congress had the power to make the change with a mere law. The bill’s summary also sounds a lot like something an immigration hawk would say today, arguing that reform is necessary “to curb criminal activity by aliens, to defend against acts of international terrorism,” and to “protect American workers from unfair labor competition.” (More Harry Reid stories.)