From Pine View Farm

Birthwrongs 0

Steve Chapman, writing in the Chicago Tribune, takes a look at the current rage in Wingnut World–repealing the citizenship provisions of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. He skewers the paranoid race-baiting that underlies that effort, including the bizarre fears of Manchurian pregnancies. A nugget:

Last year, U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, said terrorists are sending pregnant women to have children on U.S. soil so they can “come back in 20, 25 years” to “blow us up.”

Sure they are, congressman. And while they’re here, they’re putting LSD in the water supply. Unfortunately, the fear of “anchor babies,” as they are known among anti-immigration activists, is spawning not only weird fantasies but also actual legislation.

The L. A. Times comments on the same topic (emphasis added):

In 1898, the (Supreme–ed.) court, interpreting the 14th Amendment in light of common law, ruled that the American-born child of noncitizen Chinese immigrants was entitled to citizenship. It rested its decision on the “fundamental rule of citizenship by birth within the territory.” The only exceptions, the court said, were “children of foreign sovereigns or their ministers, or (those) born on foreign public ships, or (children) of enemies within and during a hostile occupation of part of our territory, and … children of members of the Indian tribes owing direct allegiance to their several tribes.”

In the event that the legislators’ initiatives are enacted, that precedent surely would lead the Supreme Court to strike them down. Still, these proposals muddy the legal waters in service of a mean-spirited campaign against the children of illegal immigrants. Whether it’s hysteria about “anchor babies” or opposition to the DREAM Act, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for children brought to this country at a young age, anti-immigrant fervor is unworthy of this society. So is this ill-considered assault on a long-established legal principle.

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