The Republicans are well known for their tactic of using wedge issues to excite the base (think God, Gays and Guns) in order to accomplish more nefarious goals like tax cuts for the rich and favors for corporations. The "debate" over repealing the 14th amendment is a classic example. In this so-called debate, everyone is talking about the clause that guarantees citizenship for anyone born in the U.S. But read the whole amendment and you'll see there are other little matters that the Republicans would like to do away with.
They talk about repealing the 14th as a whole, but the citizenship clause (the first sentence in the amendment) is only a part of it.
As has been mentioned elsewhere, the 14th amendment was passed after the Civil War and actually appears to be a mish-mash of measures that also deal with former US officials who sided with the Confederacy, matters of debt, etc. And it is true that the first section was intended to make sure that former slaves were not denied citizenship. And just maybe, that has become a less than perfect mechanism over time. In the late 19th century,there were no airplanes that people could take close to term to come here and create "anchor babies." But if that were the only way this was abused, there would not be sufficient numbers to get excited over.
The immigration issue has been examined in an excellent diary, Furthermore! Why Repubs are REALLY Targetting Hispanic Immigration The FatLadySings points out the ominous trends Republicans face due to immigration and population shifts among the states--shifts that will ultimately greatly favor Democrats.
Now let's look at Section 2 of the 14th amendment:
Sect. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed.
Oh, lookie here! Repealing the 14th would also mean we would have to redefine how the numbers of Representatives are apportioned to each state. How convenient! It's the classic, "Look there at all those hordes of immigrants swarming over the border!" --That stampedes us into the immediate solution by repealing the 14th and that would result in chaos in Congressional elections, which I'm sure the Republicans would be well prepared to exploit.
Oh, and there's just one other thing--the due process clause, which is also a part of Section 1:
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
To be fair, the 5th amendment also contains a similar clause, but it is not quite as emphatic. I don't doubt that a successful repeal of the 14th amendment would simply accelerate the erosion of the right to due process that we see is already happening in this country. However, the 5th amendment does not include the part that guarantees "the equal protection under law."
The elimination of those few words would completely prevent things like the move for protection of gay rights, such as the current suit seeking to overturn California's Proposition 8 banning gay marriage, which is based on that very clause. Think of the further implications such a repeal would have.
So let's insist that when someone brings up the repeal of the 14th amendment, we call them on the whole thing--because that is what this is really about, a much larger sneaky strategic goal.