“How do you revoke remittances?” he asked shaking his head. “A plan needs to be grounded in reality.”…

Revoking birthright citizenship would require a change to the Constitution, he noted. That’s a lengthy process, so in the meantime, “There needs to be real efforts to deal with the abuse of these factories where people come in and have children to gain the citizenship for the children. But this is in the Constitution. The argument that it’s not I don’t think is the right view.”

That was a veiled reference to comments made Monday by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who noted that in the early 1990s, Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) introduced legislation that would have clarified the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and revoked birthright citizenship. Reid has since abandoned that position and become a leading proponent of comprehensive immigration reform.

“There are like 10 things I would change in the Constitution with a magic wand,” Bush said. “But in the interim, we’ve got to control the border, we’ve got to enforce the rule of law, we’ve got to deal with extended stays on legal visas, we’ve got to have an e-Verify system that’s verifiable, we’ve got to deal with sanctuary cities, we’ve got to forward-lean on the border. There’s practical things that we can do to reduce the flow of illegal immigrants, which clearly is important to do.”