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September 05, 2013 03:14 PM UTC

In Denver Post interview, Coffman affirms opposition to birthright citizenship

  • 34 Comments
  • by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

How fun it would be to sit on a newspaper's editorial board and interview all the candidates who traipse by the office begging for an endorsement.

Over the years, The Denver Post has dabbled with putting those interviews online, where they'd be a valuable public resource, but this isn't done in any systematic fashion, unfortunately.

But, moving its nose slowly in the right direction, The Post's editorial-page staff produces an online video-interview, called the Roundup, which proved its worth this week with an illuminating interview with Rep. Mike Coffman.

Yesterday's program broke news when Coffman affirmed his opposition to the longstanding U.S. law granting citizenship to people born on American soil, even if their parents are not citizens. This is commonly referred to the policy of birthright citizenship. 

Coffman: I mean, the current law is, and the United States is separate from other countries, is that if you are born in the United States, you are, in fact, a citizen of the United States. You know, I think we should probably be, adopt the policies of other countries, that you are a citizen of your parents. But the fact is, that we have children who were born under current U.S. law. And therein lies the challenge that I have, particularly in meeting families up in what is a very new district. And that –

Denver Post Editorial Writer Tim Hoover: You’d see that changed, right? Is that what you’re saying?

Coffman: Sure. I mean, I think we ought to look at that. But , the fact is, what we have to understand, the fact is, we don’t revoke citizenship once it’s given. [BigMedia emphasis]

Watch this portion of the Post's Coffman interview here. And the entire interview here.

During his interview with Hoover, Coffman, who's considered one of the most endangered Congressman in the country, also for the first time offered a vague explanation of how his immigration position is different from the bipartisan bill passed by the Senate. Coffman said:

Coffman @7:30: Where I differ from what the Senate did is, to go beyond that [temporary] legal status, you really do have a trigger. And you really do have to demonstrate that we’ve secured our border. And you really do have to demonstrate that we have mechanisms in place and the will to enforce all of our laws. And that’s a real concern of mine…”

Coffman also said he wants tougher English-language standards and other qualifications for citizenship:

Coffman @10:05: I think we really ought to raise the standards for citizenship across the board. I think citizenship really is sacred. I think between myself and my late father, we have 42 years of military experience and four wars. And I think we understand the value of American citizenship. And so, I think that when we say that somebody ought to know English to become a United States citizen, I think we really ought to mean that they ought to know English and we should raise bar on that. When we say that somebody ought to understand the civic culture of our country, we really mean they ought to understand that to include a firm knowledge of the Constitution of the United States. I think we need to raise the bar on citizenship , period.

And Coffman also offered a new option for Dreamers to attain citizenship, saying he's drafting a bill to allow young people, who entered the U.S. illegally, @8:40, "to achieve citizenship through military service and through higher education." Previously, Coffman only supported allowing so-called Dreamers to achieve citizenship through military service.

Obviously, many questions flow from The Post's interview with Coffman:

  • Will he be introducing a bill to stop birthright citizenship?
  • What specifically are his proposed triggers for citizenship? What does sufficient immigration enforcement look like? How else does his immigration position differ from what's in the Senate bill?
  • Does Coffman support a path to citizenship for adults? (After speaking with Coffman, The Post's Hoover doesn't think so, because he wrote that Coffman "favors legal residency, but not citizenship, for adult illegal immigrants.")
  • What does Coffman think of the accusation that he's changing his positions on immigration and other issues simply to get re-elected in a more moderate new district?

That's the point of the editorial page, partially, to raise questions. The Roundup did so this week, by putting good questions to Coffman. The Post should offer more long-form interviews on its editorial-page website. In addition to the weekly Roundup show, why not post all issue and endorsement interviews?

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34 thoughts on “In Denver Post interview, Coffman affirms opposition to birthright citizenship”

  1. I have always thought that birthright citizenship was great for our country.

    Take a look a Germany and its "Turkish problem" for an example of non-birthright failure. Look at Japan which said that people of Korean descent who had lived in Japan for centuries were not Japanese.

    We are not these countries, we are better than this.

    1. Exactly. And it isn't just a matter of being better in a moral sense. Birthright is why we don't have whole blocks of ethnic minorities who can never be American even if they and their parents were born here. That's why my parents' generation, the children of eastern European Jewish immigrants, always felt themselves to be patriotic Americans. That's why the men went to war for their country during WWII  and the women worked in war supporting industries back home or volunteered for things like the Red Cross. That's why Thanksgiving and the 4th of July have always been just as much for us as for any other American and we have always felt this country to be our country.

      If I were a Turk in Germany, even as the grandchild of immigrants, second generation native born, I wouldn't be a German.  My grandparents wouldn't have been allowed to become citizens and  there wouldn't have been birthright to make my parents or myself citizens either. We'd just be generations of resident aliens, strangers in the land of our birth and a strangers in our ancestral country too. Nowhere people. 

      The fact that people like my parents and myself aren't in that bitter, hopeless situation but feel ourselves to be real Americans is just as good for America as it is for us. 

  2. What a moron..I am sure quite a few of his Latino and Asian constituents are in fact "Birthright citizens."  Does he not realize he represents one of Colorado's most diverse congressional districts? It's freaking 30 percent Hispanic and 5 percent Asian at least (well that is Aurora anyway). Even the nearly 16 percent African-American population probably has many African immigrants as part of its district. Even much of the white population could very well consist of large Eastern European population that lives there. I am willing to bet District 6 has one of the highest populations of "bithright citizens" in the entire state. Can't wait for Romanoff to use this in an attack ad.

    1. Yes, judging by the breadth and depth of immigrant cuisine in Aurora, plus the articles I've read in the Denver Post about various refugee communities, I'd say the potential for birthright citizens in CD6 is very good.

      Hopefully we'll send Coffman back to Mayberry next year!

  3. He can flip and flop all he wants to, like the fish-out-of-water he is in that district. He's still likely to get clobbered. The part of the new District 6 that used to be Perlmutter's is FURIOUS that they lost Ed. My mom lives there and her neighbors think Coffman is a mean-spirited SOB. I may actually get her to walk some precincts for Romanoff, and this is a woman who didn't vote beteen 1952  and 2002. Bush v Gore hacked her off enough to get her to register.  BTW, "Coffman"; that's a German name, isn't it? Sounds like some ancestor of his got this "birthright citizenship" he so disapproves of. That's called "pulling up the ladder", or "I got mine, screw you". That's definitly a sentiment I want in a Congressional rep. 

  4. I sort of expected Elliott to weigh in on this one, given his stated positions…but since he didn't have a problem with what Ms. Marble said about "Mexicans", perhaps he's come around to another point of view. I suppose it all depends on what direction the stick is thrown.

  6. I was under the distinct impression that newly naturalized citizens know more civics than most graduating high school seniors. Apparently Coffman hasn't heard that. 

  7. So… how does this proposal even work? You're only a citizen of where your parents come from, but they're only citizens of where their parents came from, etc.? Does Coffman have indigenous ancestry, or would he like to exchange his US citizenship for something more European?

  8. You know, I think we should probably be, adopt the policies of other countries…

    You know, when progressives point out that places like Europe have high wages, long vacations, and universal health care for their citizens, the response from 'pubs usually includes invectives such as "We're not other countries, we're AMERICA!!" But when it comes to something a 'pub wants, IOKIYAR, as always.

    2. Not only that, they accuse Dems of being European lovin' socialists. Or wanting to hand our sovereignty over to the UN. The pearl clutching that would follow a Dem saying we should be like those "other" countries would be something to behold. Why am I not surprised this rightie picked something to copy that is an absolutely horrible, un and anti American idea in the profoundest sense.

  9. How fun it would be to sit on a newspaper's editorial board and interview all the candidates who traipse by the office begging for an endorsement.

     

    OMG   I sat through thousands of these.   For fun, I much prefer having a root canal while the IRS audits me.

      1. Now I'm no constitutional lawyer, and don't take this as legal advice, but I think you're wrong.

        The constitution empowers government to create law and limits where it can't.  It enumerates rights and powers, and while it may be the foundation of the law, its proclamations are not law.

  11. Romanoff's people are going to have so much fun with ads on Coffman's flip flops on abortion,immigration, and didn't he "misspeak" something outrageous about Obama?

     

    1. We're already seeing ads pointing out what an extremist Coffman is. The latest shows him talking about how Obama isn't a real American.  These are supposedly about asking Coffman to support things like responsible energy development but clearly they are an excuse to start laying the groundwork for campaigning against Coffman as an extremist, not right for  the new CD6. Somehow, in spite of his record, he had always managed to be viewed as pretty moderate up until his last election when that started to crack. 

      I'm sure there will be plenty of flip flop stuff in ads too.  So, come 2014,  he should be well established as both an extremist and someone you can't trust because he's always changing positions.

      I'm pretty sure bet knows birthright can't be changed without a constitutional amendment which pretty much means it can't be changed in the foreseeable future if ever. He may bot be the sharpest knife in the drawer but I doubt he's quite that ignorant. Passing amendments seems to have stopped being possible a long time ago. He must just say it to appeal to the wacko base which is strange considering the composition of the reconfigured CD6.  

  12. Birthright citizenship is in the Constitution.  If people have a problem with that they need to work through it by Constitutional Amendment not by having an unconstitutional bill. 

    3. Notice, Elliott didn't say anything about Coffman's anti-immigrant beliefs. Just the proper avenue he needs to promote them. 

      Way to fight for your true beliefs, Elliott.  

       

       

      1. I've criticized Coffman's past immigration positions elsewhere on this site. Additionally, I'd note that Romanoff is hardly pro-immigrant himself.  Remember – he helped pass one of the worst state anti-immigrant bills in history. 

          1. What do you think I just did?  I'm not going to write out a treatise of every single criticism I have of Coffman on immigration in every post.  That would be a waste of time for everybody including myself.  

            Here Coffman seems to be proposing a bill that would be unconstitutional on its face and in direct violation of his sworn oath to uphold the Constituiton.  I've pointed that out and if he says something further I disagree with on the topic I'll consider pointing that out as well. 

              1. Considering that his opponent is Romanoff who I not only disagree with on other issues but who also pushed one of the worst anti immigrant bills in the nation when he was in legislator, quite a bit

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