aaaant... sorry you lose. it doesn't work that way, but thankx for playing
Posted on 07/27/2004 3:33:44 PM PDT by yankeedame
Posted on Mon, Jul. 26, 2004
Pregnant woman wants re-entry to U.S., lawyers say fetus is citizen
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - Lawyers for a deported Mexican woman who is eight months pregnant are seeking her return to the United States to protect the unborn baby's health. They also say under federal law the fetus is a viable human being and thus may be eligible for citizenship rights.
That argument sounds like a long shot to some on both sides of the immigration debate. But in May, a U.S. District Court judge in Kansas City, Mo., approved a stay of deportation for a pregnant Mexican woman after raising, among other concerns, the question of whether her fetus could be considered a U.S. citizen. The judge is reviewing the issue.
That Missouri decision cannot set legal precedent, but immigration attorneys say it may offer them a new angle in deportation cases.
Last week immigration officials denied a request to grant 30-year-old Maria Christina Rubio, mother of two young U.S.-born daughters, a temporary humanitarian visa to return to the United States because of complications in her pregnancy. Rubio's attorney did not immediately return calls for comment. She was deported July 16.
Her husband's attorney, Luis Carrillo, said he is considering whether to file a lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement for unlawful deportation.
Carrillo said Rubio, who was hospitalized with complications in her fifth month and has suffered severe stomach pains throughout her pregnancy, needs to be back in the United States because the baby's health is at risk.
He also cited the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004, in which unborn children are granted equal protection under criminal law. Carrillo said that since the fetus is 8 months and would be viable outside the womb, it should be treated as a child born in the United States.
"The child was conceived in the United States and would have been born in the United States except that the mother was deported. Through no part of his own, the unborn baby is in Mexico," Carrillo said.
Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the U.S. Constitution's definition of citizen is very clear.
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States" are considered citizens under the 14th Amendment.
"It doesn't say all persons who were conceived in the United States," Kice said.
In the Missouri case, the court questioned whether the unborn child would be a U.S. citizen because its father was.
Lawyers for the U.S. Attorney's office in Missouri argued that while fetuses are protected under criminal law, the law does not restrict the government's immigration powers. Known as "Laci and Conner's Law," - the legislation was enacted after the bodies of Laci Peterson and her unborn son washed up along the San Francisco Bay in 2003. Peterson's husband, Scott, is charged with their murder.
Rubio was deported after she went to what her husband says was to be a status conference on her residency request. Immigration officials say the pregnant Rubio was immediately deported after it was discovered her residency request had been denied two years before and that she had previously entered the country illegally and been deported.
Kice said Rubio's lawyer at the time did not attend the hearing but was reached by telephone and did not raise any concerns about her health. She also said Rubio received an exam from public health services to ensure she was fit to travel.
Alan Diamante, an advising attorney in the case, said he believes it is important to bring the fetus citizenship argument to court, although he acknowledged it may be difficult argument to win.
"You can say this argument is a stretch, but these are the types of arguments that attorneys have to make to get into court," he said. "Laws are always changing and becoming harsher, and immigrant lawyers have to be creative to be heard."
Interesting...
If the courts decide that a fetus IS an American citizen, then the fetus IS a person with certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the persuit of happiness...
Meaning that if this decision stands, that abortion would have to be declared murder of an American citizen...
Ohhh... the libs are going to love this one!
Mark
they would consider the fetus a human being so the woman and the baby can be US residents but wont consider a fetus as a human being when it comes to abortion, aint that a bitch
Illegal aliens are "subject to the jurisdiction" of the U.S.-- that's why they can be prosecuted for illegal entry. The Supreme Court, in the Wong Kim Ark case (about 1880, IIRC) said anyone born here is a citizen, except for children of foreign diplomats who have diplomatic immunity. (I agree that illegal immigration wasn't something they were thinking about when they passed the 14th Amendment, but the rule is nonetheless there.)
What on earth would she ever want to do that? If she could manage to give birth on US soil, that baby would be her golden key.
If she could have avoided initial entry, she wouldn't have got knocked up in the first place...
If the father is a US citizen does that not make the baby so also, regardless of where it's born?
Don't waste any of my tax paying money on this one.
we're forgetting that libs can have it both ways when it suits them.
then let him stay- HE'S A GENIUS!
aaaant... sorry you lose. it doesn't work that way, but thankx for playing
If citizenship happens at viability which would be something like 6 months gestation --- then all those babies whose mothers made a run for the border after that point --- are citizens of Mexico and should be cut off welfare and deported.
I wonder in which country is the private insurance plan that she pays her health insurance premiums to --- I bet she has no intention of paying for her own hospitalization or any health care her baby will ever receive.
Complications? She and that baby could be very expensive --- Mexico has a Socialized system of medicine --- it sounds unlikely she's paying for insurance so she can have the baby in a Mexican hospital meant for their indigent patients --- it won't cost her too much there --- health care if much more affordable in Mexico.
I say let the captured SOB claim his citizenship, then try him for treason and have him executed.
So are funerals.
actually... it does work that way. while a fetus is a living human, it has not passed the "birth" stage of life.
keeping this in mind, the law states that one can be a "natural born" citizen, not "natural-conceived citizen"
saying otherwise would open up a debate along the lines of "well, I visited the USA once, arent I a citizen too?"
Conceived In Liberty?
no.
if that were true, i wouldnt have had the need for my mother to get back to the US base to have me in Frankfurt Germany, 1984.
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