Arizona Takes Next Step…the Children!
It’s not enough that Arizona wants legal sanction to stop anyone who looks like an illegal immigrant, whatever that means. Now they are going after the children of illegal immigrants.
The Arizona state legislature is apparently ready to debate a bill that would deny birth certificates to U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants. As the anti-immigrant movement rages, this should not be surprising. These so called “anchor babies”, often regarded with disgust and repusion, are in fact USAmericans. And the truth is that they are slowly growing up. Some are already of voting age, with others to follow.
So what their parents do not have, these young people will have– the right to education beyond high school, the right to work, the right to reside legally, and ultimately, the right to vote.
This is of great concern to libertarian Tea Party candidate Rand Paul:
“I’m not opposed to letting people come in and work and labor in our country,” Paul said. “But I think what we should do is we shouldn’t provide an easy route to citizenship. A lot of this is about demographics. If you look at new immigrants from Mexico, they register three to one Democrat, so the Democratic Party is for easy citizenship and allowing them to vote. I think we need to address that.”
So apparently the only thing worse than an anchor baby is an anchor baby that votes Democratic.
I heard that same concern also articulated by William Gheen of ARIPAC
I am doing everything I can to stop [people] from turning fifteen million illegals into voters and thus destroying the borders of the United States irreparably .
Now while the previous two quotes refer to the potential voting power of currently undocumented immigrants, it is clear that the challenge to “automatic legality” of their newborns would protect the demographic from “an easy route to citizenship” for so-called anchor babies.
The fact is that the US Constitution is not going to be amended, or for that matter reinterpreted so as to exclude a certain ethnicity from citizenship. This issue was addressed over one hundred years ago by the Supreme Court in its ruling in the case, United States v. Wong Kim Ark.
“To hold that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution excludes from citizenship the children born in the United States of citizens or subjects of other countries,” the majority wrote, “would be to deny citizenship to thousands of persons of English, Scotch, Irish, German, or other European parentage, who have always been considered and treated as citizens of the United States.”
So why press for a state law that is clearly unconstitutional? Obviously for symbolic reasons, and to scare undocumented immigrants into moving to other states.
And in the process, to further alienate young Hispanic USAmericans, who have no way of knowing the exact extent of anti-immigrant legislation.
The efforts of so-called “patriots” to dismiss and degrade a subset of USAmericans is shameful.
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I fully support and endorse what Arizona is doing and your article shows that you never even bothered to read the Arizona Anti-illegal immigration law. It never allowed police to stop someone merely for looking like they might be an illegal immigrant. It’s a lot like the seat belt law..you have to have been stopped for something else first before they even questioned your immigration status. I am opposed to the idea that an illegal immigrant woman can just cross into U.S. territory..have a baby and suddenly the baby becomes an American citizen. This is absolutely and completely abhorant. If the child does not have at least ONE parent who is already a legal American citizen then guess what? the child isn’t a citizen no matter which line on a map they were born on and they should be deported just like the mother. The Arizona law is meant to fight illegal immigration..not immigration in general..this is a mischaracterization and a blatant lie. I am all for legal immigration but one cannot flaunt the law and be rewarded for it..break a law and you accept the consequences. No one is above the law..not even an illegal immigrant who is by definition a criminal. We have enough criminals who were born to American parents in this country already..why do we need to allow the unrestrained importation of even more criminals? Personally if upholding the law alienates young Hispanic people in this country then so be it..I’d rather alienate them than allow the law to go unenforced. Why bother having laws or borders at all if you’re just going to welcome any ol person in who comes by any means they feel like and gain citizenship just because their mother crossed the border in time to give birth. The 14th Amendment was NEVER intended to give citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants. It was intended to ensure the citizenship of both those who fought for the Confederacy so they would still have citizenship after the war was over and to ensure that the newly freed slaves and their children would have full citizenship in their country. If it is going to be abused to give citizenship to those who have no legal right to it then the 14th Amendment should be repealed so the loophole around the law and the incentive for illegal immigrant women to come here and give birth will be removed. I applaud the efforts of these “patriots” that you call “shameful”..and I am right there behind them every step of the way. You should be ashamed..do our immigration laws mean nothing to you? By the way, if the Arizona law is unconstitutional then how can this be when it merely mirrors existing federal law that the federal government refuses to enforce? If the state law is unconstitutional then so is the federal law..heck, let’s just do what you apparently want done..throw open our borders and tell everyone to come right on in..course eventually it’ll cause our economy and society to completely collapse from the excessive drain on our national resources trying to give all the benefits of citizenship to all the people who will flood our shores. The children of illegal immigrants are NOT US Americans..never have been and never will be as long as they are allowed to benefit from the criminal entry of their parent into this country. Find all the illegals I say..and deport them no matter where they came from or how long they’ve been here. Toss them out on their butts and let them come back in the right legal way..in about 10 to 15 years.