GOP senator: ‘Absolutely crazy’ Congress represents non-citizens

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) on Saturday said it’s “absolutely crazy” that Congress represents people living in the United States who are not citizens. 

On CNN, the Republican lawmaker identified existing immigration and citizenship laws he opposes.

“Another rule which I think is absolutely crazy is when Congress is apportioned following a new sentence, non-citizens, including illegals, are part of that town,” Vitter said. 

“Now I don’t think the founders established Congress to represent non-citizens…,” he said. “I think that’s just crazy as well.”

{mosads}Vitter suggested he still supports a resolution he introduced with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) in 2011 that said a person born in the U.S. could only become a citizen if one or both of his parents is a legal citizen, a legal immigrant or member of the armed forces. 

“This is the only country where just because an individual is born here physically, he or she is a citizen. That’s an outlier rule. No other industrialized country has that rule,” he said Saturday. “I don’t know why we have that rule.” 

A host said that rule — the 14th Amendment — exists because of President Abraham Lincoln and his efforts to end slavery. 

“This has nothing to do with slavery, absolutely nothing to do with that,” Vitter responded.

Vitter said the GOP is currently exploring options to block President Obama’s executive order on immigration, which he unveiled Thursday night.

The current system, Vitter said, makes it “exceedingly difficult” to go through the legal process to earn citizenship. 

Vitter said there are “virtually unguarded borders in some areas” of the United States, which he said is “encouraging implicitly illegal immigration.”