What is the newest threat to our nation's security and freedom? Babies! Anchor babies! Mexican sleeper terror babies! Watch the (wickedly funny) Daily Show episode and roll your eyes over the following real-life quotes from the episode:
Unnamed lawyer: "I know it's babies we're talking about, and it's hard to be tough on babies, but let's remember--we're talking about illegal aliens coming to this country for the purpose of birthing a child. Not because they love the kid, but because they want that child to provide them with the benefits of US citizenship."
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TV reporter asks Congressman Louie Gohmert: "Your theory is that Al-Qaeda will send a pregnant woman over here to have a baby and then start to train these babies to be terrorists? Is that right?"Congressman Gohmert: "Well it's not just a theory..."
~~~~~
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC): "Birthright citizenship, I think, is a mistake. We should change our constitution and say that if you come here illegally and have a child, that child's automatically not a citizen. They come here to drop a child. It's called 'drop and leave.' "
I'm not at a computer where I can watch the show right now, so I'm looking forward to it and hoping it lightens my mood about all of this. Mostly it just makes me really depressed. It pains my heart to see the women I've worked with for almost all of my time in maternal and child health - undocumented immigrants - as the targets of so much transparent racism. The idea that they are here to plant "anchor babies" is ludicrous. They want to survive economically and to make life better for their relatives; and they want to start their own families. This seems to be the goal of almost everyone on earth. But when it happens here with brown people, it's a terrorist tactic or a scam for citizenship.
ReplyDeleteRe: "drop and leave": I can't remember any longer whose blog I read that pointed out the clear dehumanization there. Animals "drop" their young. Human women give birth. Apparently people in the U.S. without papers are no different from barnyard animals.
Sorry for the kneejerk rant! I've been upset about this lately (picture me yelling back at the radio when one of these people is interviewed on NPR)...
The Constitution provides citizenship for those who are born here, who are under the jurisdiction of the United States. Are people who entered the country illegally under the jurisdiction of the United States? That's an interesting question, which will probably have to be decided by the Supreme Court.
ReplyDeleteBut let's be clear, the people on the Daily Show are not interested in taking this to the Supreme Court and have the Court weigh the 14th Amendment for original intent. They are interested in outright repeal.
ReplyDelete"Original intent"? Not according to the folks who call the Constitution "a living document," and seek to change the meaning of the original intent to whatever the current judges want. Would that we *did* go back to "original intent"! Would that all citizens in this country had to read "The Federalist Papers" prior to graduating high school, and again in college, and again in law school, and again as members of any branch of federal government! How many people think that the phrase "separation of church and state" is in the Constitution, when it isn't even in *any* of the founding documents?!
ReplyDeleteThe 14th Amendment was passed by Republicans over the protests of Democrats to ensure that freed slaves were considered US citizens in all the states, but especially the Southern states, so that they could vote, hold office, etc. I remember reading something about either a court case, or some other ruling, or discussion on this, soon after the passage of this Amendment, over whether Native Americans (American Indians) would be considered US citizens by this, and the answer given was "no," because they were not considered to be under the jurisdiction of the United States, though living in the U.S.
I don't know much about American law, but I do feel that if you come to a country illegally, then you should not be entitled to the freedoms and benefits of legal citizens...who's paying for the women giving birth in hospitals just so the child can be 'American'? It's not just an American issue...due to socialized healthcare in Canada, it's an issue here too. I don't like the term "drop and leave" but I agree with the issue.
ReplyDeleteI live in Texas, and unless you live in a border state you cannot really understand the immense problem we have with illegal immigrants. Yes, there are the ones who are "good" and are coming here for a better life...but let's face it, they still BROKE THE LAW. And then there are the ones who are Mexican Mafia, drug lords, and all kinds of other lovely things:) This is a HUGE problem, and if you deny the baby of an illegal citizenship, a lot of illegals will quit coming to America on purpose to get a foot into the country. I'm all for LEGAL immigration...but something has got to be done here. Change the immigration laws to make legal immigration easier, build a real border fence to keep the bad guys out (not just illegals, but terrorists), and make sure the immigrants who come in are hard workers and will not live off of the taxpayers. This issue is not at all black and white...I'm not necessarily in favor of mass deportation, but we have to stop the inflow of illegals NOW!!!! Mexico needs to get their act together and take care of their citizens...changing Mexico, that's the ultimate solution to this incredible mess. And to be honest, I'm not sure how to do that. But I do know that I am NOT okay with people breaking the law, period.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm not racist...I'm part Hispanic myself. This isn't about race...it's about following the laws and protecting citizens of the US. The immigrations laws stink and need to be rewritten...but until congress gets off their duffs and does something about it, we need to enforce them. I feel bad for these people I do, but two wrongs don't make a right. I've known several illegal immigrants when I worked in our Spanish church in San Anotonio. Good people who deserved a good quality of life yes they were. But they still didn't have a good quaility of life, working for incredibly low wages and living in slums.Sorry, this is a hot topic for me:)
ReplyDeleteWell, Michelle, *I* am a (white, because that probably matters to you) native Texan too, and you are full of it.
ReplyDeleteIllegal immigrants pay taxes on the work they do and the things they buy; and because they are illegal, they do not collect on those benefits. They can't set up 401ks or collect Social Security. They do work no one else wants to do, and they also spend a tremendous amount of money here. They, like other immigrants, are critical to our economy, and pay a great deal more in than they take out.
And if you want to look at it with complete honesty, their ancestors lived here before those of white people; it was our ancestors who took the land away from theirs.
This fear of immigrants is nothing but racism. It's the same tired crap that fueled anti-Irish and anti-Italian racism in the past. It's wrong, morally and factually.
And it's all being used by unscrupulous politicians to distract us from the *real* problems that we need to be addressing, like restarting our economy and finding non-oil energy sources.
And let me ask you: can *you* prove that *your* ancestors came here legally? I can't. I don't know when my family came over, or if they had the right papers when they did. Chances are, neither does a good chunk of the citizens of this country. Repeal the 14th amendment and there's no reason not to deport all of us too.
It all started with the Chinese Excluion act of 1882...
ReplyDeleteIt's really hard to legally immigrate to the US, especially if you're from certain countries. The law itself is unfair and racist. I understand there's a problem with illegal immigration. Why not remove artificial barriers and let supply and demand govern the situation? Illegal immigrants do often have a terrible time here b/c people abuse them b/c they can (they're illegals, what recourse do they have?).
It's a complicated issue, but the general hysteria over illegal immigrants ruining our country is misguided.
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ReplyDeleteI completely agree with emjaybee!
ReplyDeleteMost people seem to forget who were the original inhabitants of the territory - before the European colonization (they're immigrants too, by the way).
ReplyDeleteThank Darwin for the erroneous belief that some of us humans are "more evolved" or somehow "better" than others of us. Then followed IQ tests which "proved" that recent immigrants (more likely to be Eastern European, and other non-Western-European people) were inherently stupider than older immigrants (more likely to be Western European) or native-born Americans. Of course, the fact that those "Intelligence Quotient" tests had a lot of questions about "Americana" (baseball teams, etc.) and other questions recent immigrants wouldn't have known, plus were written only in English, which recent immigrants may not have mastered (not to mention, those who were illiterate couldn't understand at all), really skewed the results.
ReplyDelete-Kathy
I'm from a country that does not routinely grant citizenship to everyone born there, but rather based on heritage (ie you can claim citizenship if you can prove that your grandparents or even your great-grandparents were of that nationality, but none of your family have lived actually there in 3 generations), and it creates a whole other collection of problems. Not sure I'd recommend that route either.
ReplyDeleteOne more thing re: "anchor" babies: as far as I understand it, you used to be able to get permission to stay in the country if your child was a US citizen, but that's not the case anymore. As a matter of fact, the US routinely deports adult illegal aliens and gives them the choice to take their US citizen children with them or leave them in the US foster system. Once they're 18, the child can petition to bring the parents to the US, but that process can take up to a decade. Hardly a worthwhile project if you want to become legal in the US -you'd have to wait about 30 years.
"womantowomancbe said...
ReplyDeleteThe Constitution provides citizenship for those who are born here, who are under the jurisdiction of the United States. Are people who entered the country illegally under the jurisdiction of the United States? "
Yes, immigrants would be under the jurisdiction of the US, otherwise you would not be able to arrest them, deport them, fine them, give them a parking ticket, etc.
The jurisdiction clause was meant for people like diplomats, who have immunity and are generally NOT subject to the laws of the country.
Also, to be clear, the clause is referring to the person being born, not the parent (in this case, the pregnant woman). I'm not sure you could make the case that the fetus entered the country illegally....seems to be an alegal entry.
Thanks emjaybee, you more or less covered everything I would have said to this.
ReplyDeleteI just have one more question for Michelle: do you really think undocumented immigrants in this country would stop coming here if their children weren't going to be allowed to be citizens? Many of them already have children. They either bring them along (knowing they will never get citizenship) or leave them in their home countries (not getting to see them again for years or even decades). Those people are not coming for citizenship for their children, they're coming to support their children. And the people who don't have children, do you think they would wait to start a family until they left? They're coming for jobs and will have children while they're here if they get citizenship or not. I just don't see this being the big draw.
Emjaybee, saying that I'm "full of it" is actually quite rude. I'm happy to have civilized debate:) Everything I stated is very true where I live. I'm not out to kick out illegals here already, I'm just saying we have to have laws! I'm all for changing the immigration laws to make them easier to get into the country, but in the 1800s if you were very sick, guess what they didn't let you in. We have to have some standards. This issue needs to be nipped in the bud ASAP. This is only one area, there are several others (patrol the border, build a fence, make immigration easier, fine companies who hire illegals). I will never be for let everyone and their mother into this country, sorry. I don't care much for the Mexican mafia:) And I could care less what race you are, I only stated mine so people would know this isn't just "another priveldged white conservative." And I know my family wasn't illegal, we've lived in New Mexico since the 1600s:)
ReplyDeleteAnd just for the record, I'm all for legal immigration and making that easier:) I just don't think breaking the law is acceptable, period.
ReplyDeleteSorry for being late to the conversation again, but I thought this was relevant:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.boingboing.net/2010/08/25/tom-the-dancing-bug-17.html