Home > Our Blog > More Details on State-Level Plan To Block Birth Ceritificates of Undocumented

Blog Post

More Details on State-Level Plan To Block Birth Ceritificates of Undocumented

Posted October 19, 2010 by Patrick Young, Esq.
Categories: Hate Watch

More info is emerging on the strategy of anti-immigrant state legislators who want to deny citizenship status to children born in the United States to non-citizen parents. Yesterday I wrote about SB 1070 authors Russell Pearce and Kris Kobach getting together a secret plan to move against these kids at the state level.

According to The Washington Independent, a group of state legislators is now working together to take the anti-child initiative national.

The group believes that undocumented immigrants primarily come to the United States to give birth to children. One member, Pennsylvania State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, said, “It is not far-fetched to say many of these people are having babies for the purpose of having that anchor baby status to get benefits. You’ve hit the jackpot when you come into the country illegally and have an anchor baby here.”

So undocumented immigrants don’t have babies for the same reasons everyone else has them, they have them to get benefits.

According to the Washington Independent, Metcalfe called undocumented immigrants “criminals” and “alien invaders.” The state legislator even equated having a child in the United States as a non-citizen with child abuse:

“If an American citizen were to do the things to a baby that these people do to have ‘anchor baby’ status, you would probably be charged with child abuse,” he said. “They’re really exploiting these children. We do not let Americans who live the life of a criminal keep their children.”

So, the mere fact of an undocumented immigrant having a child is evidence of child abuse in Metcalfe’s opinion.

The Washington Independent continues:

Metcalfe, who founded the group State Legislators for Legal Immigration in 2007, said lawmakers in Nevada and Alabama have already signed onto his 14th Amendment Citizens Model Committee to draft bills related to citizenship. Arizona State Sen. Russell Pearce (R), who also wrote Arizona’s contested SB 1070 immigration law, has also said he plans to introduce a state bill limiting citizenship to children born to American citizens.

The group will work with the Immigration Reform Law Institute, the legal arm of the pro-enforcement Federation for American Immigration Reform, to write bills that can be introduced in state legislatures across the country. Although citizenship is federal issue, Metcalfe argued that states can determine citizenship because they issue the birth certificates.

There is no evidence that any large number of undocumented immigrants come to the US to have babies. In fact, research indicates that the overwhelming reason for coming to the states is to find work.

Even if the bill is measured by it’s own alleged goal of reducing illegal immigration, it’s a failure. Creating a new class of undocumented immigrants – children born in the US to undocumented parents – would just increase the number of undocumented immigrants living here.

Tags : "anchor babies", kris kobach, russell pearce, sb 1070, undocumented

Permalink Comments