Posted on 08/20/2015 4:32:29 PM PDT by 11th_VA
Summer is the season for reunions. So far this time around I have already hosted several Chinese friends from my teenage years in China and some college friends are still to come.
Many of the visitors have one thing in common: They have had children born in the US. Their decision to have "an anchor baby" in the US, which gives the child automatic US citizenship under the 14th Amendment, has, however, somehow become a burden and annoying inconvenience these days.
US citizenship offers a wide range of government benefits and assistance programs, including Social Security, Medicare, free public education, possible merit-based loans and grants for college and hassle-free tourism access to 186 countries.
For Amy Dai, a senior manager at China Mobile's Jiangsu branch, shuffling back and forth with her US-born son between the US and China has become habitual. Six years ago, Dai gave birth to Dylon in Los Angeles in the hopes that his US citizenship would provide another option for her son and alleviate some of the hardships Chinese people face competing for a good education and decent life in the world's most populous country.
"I want Dylon to live an easy and happy life," said Dai. Like Dai, many Chinese parents chose to have their children born in the US as long as the women are on valid tourism or business visas and are able to afford the cost.
The prelude to the easy and happy life of an America-born child, however, can be taxing.
Most of the babies are taken back to China by their parents in their infancy years and live there until they complete middle school, according to Dai, who chairs a social network group for Chinese parents with America-born children.
Unlike anchor babies of other ethnic backgrounds, "our children won't use American resources, and it might take at least 21 years for us parents to obtain US permanent residency if we choose to apply," said Dai.
Both China and the US don't recognize dual nationally. Returning to China, the America-born child faces many hurdles compared to their Chinese counterparts in terms of receiving free public education and social welfare.
Alan Zhang, 15, said his parents have had to pay higher tuition to enroll him in private schools since kindergarten. "Without a local birth certificate, I'm not qualified to enter public schools," he explained.
Both business people in the petrochemical industry, Zhang's parents returned from the US to China when Zhang was one-year-old. "I don't know exactly how much out of pocket my parents have spent on my education in China," said Zhang. "Finally they decided to send me to the US when I was in junior high school."
Attending San Mateo High in the Bay Area now, Zhang said he has adapted well to the new environment, and "the good part is everything is free now."
In addition to extra expenditures on tuition, paperwork is another headache. Dai has to make trips to the US with Dylon every two years to renew his entry permit to China, which is issued by the Chinese government to foreign-born Chinese; and must come to the US every five years to renew Dylon's US passport.
"I have to admit that I'm so fed up with the long-haul flights, the jet lag is killing me," said Dai.
It's a heated debate over whether or not having an America-born child is worthwhile. And by way of breaking news, I just heard about two pregnant Chinese couples who have decided to give birth in China.
So they have difficulty in China because their children weren’t born in China??? Very interesting.
Son the point of this is what? We are supposed to feel sorry for those mothers and kids, who in attempting to have the best of both worlds, find there are problems with birth tourism???
They always were illegal according to the Constitution. Some idiot bureaucrat made the rule that allowed them...a LIB idiot bureaucrat.
It is abundantly clear, from both the historic record and the legal definition of the term "subject" contemporary with the date at which the 14th Amendment was drafted, that children of aliens are not "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States. They are instead WITHIN the jurisdiction of the US. They are not citizens of the US.
That the 14th Amendment circumscribes who CAN be a citizen, and the fact that the Constitution is a limiting document that disallows anything it does not enumerate, means that Congress MAY NOT confer automatic citizenship on anchor babies. They must be naturalized as adults.
The burden of proof, as has has been placed upon people who oppose existing policy, in fact belongs placed upon those who advocate for it.
I don't know if the author intended it, but the title is a bit amusing. There is no such term as "LOADstone," but that would be about right. The correct term would be "lodestone" which would make them attractive, as the material by that name is magnetic. More broadly, a "lode" is a concentration of any mineable mineral resources which would make them an asset and a resource.
The author needs a swift dose of grammar school.
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 had already done that. The primary, and perhaps only, REAL purpose for the 14th amendment citizenship clause, as drafted, may have been to confer the rights of citizenship to corporations, as Conkling and Bingham later admitted. You can read about that here.
yeah, free for you, out of my pocket.
Loadstone” This headline writer had heard the word “lodestone” and hasn’t seen it in print.He does not have any idea what it means. He thinks he knows because he knows that word “load” means something. “Loadstone” (lodestone) means a big rock that is a heavy load to carry, right? The writer should limit himself to words of no more than one syllable or 4 letters.
Actually a lodestone is a magnetic rock!
lodestone
noun lode·stone \-ˌstōn\
: a magnetic rock
Merriam-Webster.com
I believe the writer was searching for the metaphor, "millstone".
A lodestone is a natural magnet, not a burden.........
Inndeed.
She admits it straight up - I respect that.
How about this def ?
Anchorites= Babies (baby pl) born in the US of foreign citizens who are foreign subjects or of emmigrants entering here illegally. When born in the US of both parents who are not US citizens do not become citizens of the US period. Hence should not be entitled to the benefits and protection of being one.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.