Submitted by: BobJen
400,000 'Anchor Babies' Born in U.S. Each
Year
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's call for an end to
birthright citizenship has focused new attention on the law deemed to grant
automatic citizenship to children born in the U.S. to illegal alien parents.
Children gaining birthright citizenship are pejoratively referred to as
"anchor babies" because they provide an anchor in the U.S. for family members
seeking to enter the country legally.
When anchor babies reach age 21, they can petition the government to grant
their parents and siblings permanent resident status.
The number of babies gaining birthright citizenship has been steadily rising
and is now estimated to top 300,000 and reach as high as 400,000 a year,
according to John Feere of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). The Pew
Hispanic Center puts the estimate at 340,000 a year.
In the most recent analysis, nearly three-quarters of all children of
undocumented immigrants were U.S. citizens, and the children of illegals cost
taxpayers some $52 billion a year in education expenses alone, Judicial Watch
disclosed.
Nearly 4 million illegal aliens living in the U.S. have at least one child
who is a citizen. And 66 percent of the immigrants who were granted permanent
residency in a recent year were sponsored by family members who were American
citizens.
Federal agents recent raided several sites in California that allegedly
provided thousands of pregnant Chinese women the opportunity to give birth in
the U.S. and thereby gain American citizenship for their children, The Fiscal
Times reported.
But critics charge that providing citizenship to the children of illegal
aliens was never the intent of the law.
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1868, reads in part: "All
persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein
they reside."
The law was intended to protect the rights of native-born freed slaves in the
years following the Civil War. The U.S. did not limit immigration in 1868, so
there were no illegal immigrants and the granting of citizenship to illegals was
therefore not an issue.
In 1866, Sen. Jacob Howard from Michigan indicated the intent of the
amendment by stating: "Every person born within the limits of the United States,
and subject to their jurisdiction, is by virtue of natural law and national law
a citizen of the United States. This will not, of course, include persons born
in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of
ambassadors or foreign ministers."
Now several members of Congress are taking aim at birthright citizenship
along with Donald Trump.
"I don't have any doubt that the immigration statement that Trump put out is
going to help provide momentum for a number of different pieces of immigration
enforcement legislation, and especially birthright citizenship," Rep. Steve
King, R-Iowa, who has co-sponsored a bill to restrict birthright citizenship,
told the Washington Examiner.
Although some argue that changing the law would require a constitutional
amendment, Feere of the CIS said: "Congress could without a doubt clarify the
scope of the 14th Amendment through legislation."
King's bill would confer citizenship only on children born in the U.S. who
have at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen, legal permanent resident, or
member of the U.S. military.
Said King: "I'm glad Donald Trump has set this up on the
No comments:
Post a Comment