What People Get Wrong About Birthright Citizenship
From Conversations with Coleman by The Free Press
April 6, 2026 · 1h 15m
About this episode
Linda Chavez discusses birthright citizenship and the current immigration debate.
Linda Chavez has called herself the “Forrest Gump of Washington politics,” and it’'s hard to argue. She bumped into a Watergate burglar coming out of a bathroom in 1972, became the highest-ranking woman in the Reagan White House, nearly became Secretary of Labor under George W. Bush, and lost that nomination after it emerged she had sheltered an undocumented Guatemalan immigrant in her home. Today, she joins the show to respond to a recent episode with Lionel Shriver, pushing back on some of the assumptions driving the current immigration debate. She makes the case for robust legal immigration and serious border enforcement — and explains why the Trump administration is managing to get both wrong. She also discusses why assimilation is working better than the culture war suggests, why affirmative action hurts the students it claims to help, and why birthright citizenship is more legally settled than its critics want to admit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
People in this episode
Guest: Linda Chavez
Topics covered
- birthright citizenship
- immigration debate
- legal immigration
- border enforcement
- assimilation
- affirmative action
Keywords
- birthright citizenship
- immigration
- Linda Chavez
- Lionel Shriver
- affirmative action
- border enforcement
- assimilation
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Reagan White House, Trump administration
Places: Guatemala, Washington
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