The Great Divide of Citizenship (states, nation, cannot afford illegals, let alone their children)

LA TIMES ^ | May 7, 2006 | Anna Gorman, LA Times Staff Writer

[Liz]

Illegal immigrants whose children are legal residents by birth fear seeing their families split up if some in Congress get their way.

--SNIP--

Nearly two-thirds — an estimated 3 million — of all children of illegal immigrants are citizens, according to data compiled by the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group. "People think 'legals' live in this house and 'illegals' live in this house," said immigration attorney Carl Shusterman. "It's not usually that simple."

Families of mixed status have long lived with the threat of being divided, prompting undocumented parents to make strategic decisions about where to live, work and travel. But in recent months, as Congress has been wrestling with immigration issues, their anxiety level has risen.

Diana Hull, who runs Californians for Population Stabilization, said illegal immigrants give birth here to stake a claim in the country. "Of course this is a magnet," she said. "They come here obviously, deliberately to have a citizen child." Hull said children born of illegal immigrants should not have an automatic right to citizenship. Although she is sympathetic to the youngsters, she said, they are a potential drain on public services, and the state and the nation cannot afford them, let alone their families. "The impact on California is that citizen children [of illegal immigrants] add to the population growth," Hull said. "We can't sustain this kind of growth."

But parents who face deportation and use their citizen children as a defense rarely succeed. Under a legal change 10 years ago, parents were required to prove that their deportation would cause "exceptional and extremely unusual hardship" to the children.

[SauronOfMordor]

Considering the panic and waves of hysteria among the illegal communities every time rumor of a crackdown or sweep gets started somewhere, such strategies could have a media-amplified effect far in excess of the number of people actually detained.

Particularly if every illegal is fingerprinted, retina-scanned, etc, and is made ineligible to EVER come into the US again

And if caught in the US on a second offense, is sentenced to a work gang for a year, picking lettuce for $1/day

[DumpsterDiver]

ping

[o_zarkman44]

There are consequences for lawbreakers.
I feel bad for the children who's parents have broken immigration laws only because they are the children of lawbreakers. But not bad enough that punishment shouldn't be administered to the lawbreaking parents.

Those parents should have considered the possible consequences to children before they concieved. Those children are not our problem.

[kenavi]

I believe you are right that U.S. born minors must leave with their illegal immigrant parents.

There is a process called "de-naturalization". It should be applied against minors of illegal immigrants. That would be a powerful stimulant to get illegals with "anchor babies" to pack up and leave.

[Publius6961]

The families need not be split up. Send the whole family back to Mexico. Then the kids can come back legally when they are 18.

If you think that illegal criminals are worried at all about splitting up their family, I have this bridge I want to sell you.

They all full well know (a lot better than citizens) that their total anxiety is about whether the that argument will succeed in legitimizing their illegal status.

They all know that "keeping their family together" simply means that their own children must go back with them to Mexico.
I don't expect many of them will be making arrangements with legal resident relatives to leave their children behind, or to put them up for adoption by legal residents or citizens.

If there has been a huge rush of such adoptions, it has been the best kept secret since the Manhattan Project...

[kenavi]

Illegals clearly see the US as a free lunch---they sneak in, park themselves in our towns, 20 families to a house, live off the fat of the land at our expense, and laugh in the face of our laws.

Then who are all these people cutting our lawns, busing our dishes, harvesting our crops, and caring for our aged parents?

[last american]

The net effect of illegals on society is negative. They consume more than they put into the system:

http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/04/14/politics/main549153.shtml

illegal aliens paid 305 million dollars in federal income taxes using taxpayer identification numbers in 2001. Considering the estimated eight to twelve million illegal aliens in the country, this equates to about thirty dollars apiece - and is nowhere near enough to pay for the damage they do to our health care system, the strain they put on our schools, or the money they take from our entitlement programs - Twenty-five percent of illegal aliens are receiving government entitlements.

Plans to legalize these criminals are a slap in the face to American taxpayers, and to the immigrants who have followed our laws and waited for their turn. We must send a signal to the politicians who care only about their re-election, and vote out anyone who supports the policies of pandering to these criminals.

[hdstmf]

American military families having a baby born while serving overseas go through a process of having the baby declared a U.S. citizen. In other words, the baby becomes the same nationality of the parents. It is a fairly routine matter. If this system is good enough for U.S. government personnel serving in a foreign country, it should be good enough for illegal immigrants in this country. Birth certificates have a space to identify the nationality of the parents. The document is currently the basis for assigning social security numbers to illegal immigrant babies. The SSN is a key to obtaining social, educational, medical and other services for the baby AND the parents. The Social Security Administration is responsible for reviewing documentation before assigning an SSN. When a birth certificate shows the parents are foreign nationals, other documents should be examined to prove they are LEGAL residents of the U.S. Otherwise the baby can not qualify as an American citizen by birth alone. The answer to the problems of "Anchor babies" seems simple enough to me. Of course it is probably too simple for our government goofs and leftist elites to grasp the concept.

[last american]

Of course it is probably too simple for our government goofs and leftist elites to grasp the concept.

Bingo !!

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Statement: ".... (states, nation, cannot afford illegals, let alone their children)"

Response: This does not matter. The politicians will ruin anything to get them 'thar' votes!

[shooter223]

with apologies to Rowdy Yates .........."Head 'em up, move 'em out!" ...........while I'm at it, to those who say "we can't catch them all, there are too many, and we don't have the resources", I say : build up the resources, and in the meantime, catch as many as we can!

[goldstategop]

You know what disgusts me is these people break the law and then advance the "chutzpah" defense to justify it. The rest of us, if we broke the law, neither the prosecution nor the court would give us a break. I don't see why illegal aliens should get special consideration none of us American citizens get from our own government. That's neither compassion nor justice.

(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")

[alexander_busek]

>>American military families having a baby born while serving overseas go through a process of having the baby declared a U.S. citizen. In other words, the baby becomes the same nationality of the parents.<<

I think that we are in agreement here, but some cursory readers might come away with a misapprehension. In fact, a baby born abroad to a U.S. citizen (not necessarily with the military) does NOT have to go through a process in order to "become" a citizen, nor is it "declared" a citizen. It must go through a legal process, but only to confirm the fact that the baby was already a U.S. citizen FROM THE MOMENT OF ITS BIRTH via jus sanguinis ("law of blood").

[Jacquerie]

"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican form of Government, and shall protect each of them against invasion." Article IV Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution.

I've long wondered why the western state governments have not petitioned the feds to protect them under Article IV. Are state pols also reluctant to antagonize potential voters?

[Tammy8]

Then who are all these people cutting our lawns, busing our dishes, harvesting our crops, and caring for our aged parents?

According to a study posted the other day, the overall workforce in the United States in all job catagories, including agrigulture and service type jobs is over 90% US Citizens. I know in some areas some of these jobs are held mostly by illegals, but that is not the case overall. I personally have done all the jobs you mentioned above, and I am not an illegal.

All illegals do not come here to work; though many do come here for that reason. Many also come here to be involved in criminal activities and to take advantage of social programs.

[last american]

I've long wondered why the western state governments have not petitioned the feds to protect them under Article IV. Are state pols also reluctant to antagonize potential voters?

That is precisely the problem. The democrats look at them as a HUGE potential voting block, the republicans won't do anything about it because they're donators are the people hiring the illegals. Hence the need for a third party.

[Liz]

Take away the freebies---or start charging for them----they'll move out so fast, it'll make your head spin.

[stephenjohnbanker]

"Illegals clearly see the US as a free lunch---they sneak in, park themselves in our towns, 20 families to a house, live off the fat of the land at our expense, and laugh in the face of our laws."

and you didn't mention the

drug dealers/manufacturers
rapists
armed robbers
child molestors
murderers

Our jails are chock full of them.

[Liz]

.....you didn't mention the drug dealers/manufacturers, rapists, armed robbers, child molestors, murderers .....Our jails are chock full of them...

I stand corrected. Somebody ought to do a comparison of Mexican crime stats compared to the US, as their criminals pour across our borders.

Then again, corrupt Mexico legalizes eveything---like the latest---legalizing drugs til GWB said, "Hold on."

[A. Pole]

Why a foreign baby born by accident in USA (example: premature birth to a tourist) should have US citizenship while such child born to US parents traveling abroad should not? In modern world the institution of anchor babies is absurd.