Swatting babies with the Constitution doesn't improve immigration system

Ft. Worth Star-Telegram ^ | August 20, 2010 | Editorial

[Oldeconomybuyer]

All this talk about "anchor babies" and "birth tourism" and congressional hearings on the 14th Amendment are political sound and fury that accomplish nothing constructive regarding U.S. immigration policy.

Constitutional tinkering based more on fear than facts is dangerous business.

And opponents of changing the way a newborn's citizenship is determined correctly point out that a national registration system would be needed, creating an entire new federal bureaucracy. Are the costs worth the uncertain benefits?

The challenge is deciding which of those illegal immigrants to force to leave, which to allow to stay and how to prevent others from disregarding U.S. laws to enter the country.

Beating up on unborn babies riles folks up, but it doesn't provide the needed solutions and merely turns the Constitution into a political prop.

[patlin]

http://rs6.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=015/llsl015.db&recNum=256

Companion to the Fourteenth Amendment the Expatriation Act of 1868 was passed on July 27th, 1868 just 18 days after the ratification of the 14th Amendment (July 9, 1868):

Whereas the right of expatriation is a natural and inherent right of all people, indispensable to the enjoyment of the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and whereas in the recognition of this principle, this government has freely received emigrants from all nations, and invested them with the rights of citizenship; and whereas it is claimed that such American citizens, with their descendants, are subjects of foreign states, owing allegiance to the governments thereof<.u>; and whereas it is necessary to the maintenance of public peace that this claim of foreign allegiance should be promptly and finally disavowed; Therefore,

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any declaration, instruction, opinion, order, or decision of any officers of this government which denies, restricts, impairs, or questions the right of expatriation, is hereby declared inconsistent with the fundamental principles of this government.

We don't need any new bureaucracy, all they need to do is go back to the original way births were handled. If you were born to American citizens, then you get a birth certificate. If you are born to aliens, legal or illegal, you get a receipt of birth which you take to the ministry of your country to file where you fill out papers for a certificate of birth from the country of the parents.

easy as pie. it was how it had been done for decades.

[itsahoot]

Or, as I heard a Congressman say. We make it up as we go along. Then, we had Pete Stark tell us, the federal Government could pretty much do any thing the want to do.

[patlin]

Or one of my all time favorites:

What’s the sense of reading the bill if you don’t have 2 days & 2 lawyers to tell you what’s on the bill.

[patlin]

corrected:

What’s the sense of reading the bill if you don’t have 2 days & 2 lawyers to tell you what’s in the bill.

[Moltke]

Yeah, put a 20 foot strawman right in the title and the rest follows easily...

[Rastus]

Geez, even the leftist Steve Blow from the Dallas Morning News thinks that bestowing citizenship on the children of illegals is nuts. Screw you, Startlegram.

[A Strict Constructionist]

“BS. Remove the anchor baby provision and remove half the reason pregnant women trudge across the Rio Grande while 8.5 months pregnant.”

I find liberals extremely confusing. They want to keep illegal aliens babies and make them citizens and they they want to take citizens babies and abort them. Lithium is probably the best therapy for liberals...very large quantities.