Free Republic

In its quest to implement stealth amnesty, the Obama Administration is working behind the scenes to halt the deportation of certain illegal immigrants by granting them “unlawful presence waivers.” The new measure would apply to illegal aliens who are relatives of American citizens. Here is how it would work, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announcement posted in today’s Federal Register, the daily journal of the U.S. government; the agency will grant “unlawful presence waivers” to illegal aliens who can prove they have a relative that’s a U.S. citizen. Currently such aliens must return to their native...

A 35-year-old south Charlotte man has been charged with statutory rape after a 14-year-old girl gave birth to his child this weekend, according to police. Jail officials say Juan Martinez Hernandez, who is believed to be in the country illegally, has run afoul of police and immigration agents before, following a 2010 drunken driving arrest. It’s unclear what became of Hernandez between his release to immigration agents in 2010 and the rape charges on Sunday. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials couldn’t be reached for comment Monday. On Sunday, the 14-year-old gave birth to a baby in the bathroom of an...

Pedro moved to the Kansas City area about 13 years ago and has held the same job for 11. Though he sometimes struggles to pay bills, he knows most people think he should receive no public aid. He’s an illegal immigrant. He doesn’t deserve handouts. He understands that. “I’ve never asked for anything for myself,” said Pedro, who didn’t want his last name used to protect his family. “Never. I just work. Work hard.” A new debate swirling around Kansas, though, isn’t about Pedro. It’s about two of his three children. They were born here, and one day they will...

Michele Bachmann is coming under the microscope after insisting she would not help the children of illegal immigrants living in the United States. The Republican presidential hopeful made the eyebrow-raising remarks at a campaign stop in Oskaloosa, Iowa on Saturday after a Latino college student asked what Bachmann would do to the children of undocumented immigrants. She said she would “not do anything,” for the children, adding"Their parents are the ones who brought them here," Bachmann said, as first reported by MSNBC. "They did not have the legal right to come to the United States. We do not owe people...

US citizenship is the most sought after commodity on the market today. Yes, you read correctly, "commodity". Where else in the world can one go and be paid to retire, living off of other people's property, when they have no work history? Where else can one go to have a baby and then, in the name of that baby, reap the property of those they have no loyalty or allegiance to? Where else in the world can one enter illegally and not be subject to the laws thereof? Why the good ole' US of Despotism of course! The doctrine of...

Snips from Excerpt Only Website: When Liu Li boarded a plane for the United States, she had a little bit of makeup on, was wearing a loose dress, and had her hair up. She tried to hold her handbag in front of her belly in a natural way, just as the middleman had taught her. She was trying to look as calm as any wealthy Chinese lady would look when travelling abroad. But Liu Li couldn't help feeling terribly nervous: she was six months pregnant when she left for the United States, where she wanted to give birth to an...

In the two years since her father was deported, 13-year-old Elisabeth and her three younger siblings have settled into an after school routine while their mother, Maria Lourdes, works long hours at a beauty salon. The family shares a cramped bedroom in a Waukegan apartment. When school friends wonder why her father is no longer in the picture, Elisabeth has learned to change the subject "I don't answer," she said. "It's such a long story." After Elisabeth's father was deported, the family moved briefly to Mexico. But domestic discord led Maria Lourdes to return to Waukegan with her children, who...

Welfare Use by Immigrant Households with Children: Panel to Examine New Report with Latest Data– Tue Mar 29, 7:50 am ET WASHINGTON, March 29, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new Center for Immigration Studies report finds that, 13 years after welfare reform, the share of immigrant-headed households (legal and illegal) with a child (under age 18) using at least one welfare program continues to be very high. This is partly due to the large share of immigrants with low levels of education and their resulting low incomes – not their legal status or an unwillingness to work. The major welfare programs...

SAN GABRIEL, Calif. — The building inspectors and police officers walked into the small row of connected town houses here knowing something was amiss. Neighbors had complained about noise and a lot of pregnant women coming and going. And when they went into a kitchen they saw a row of clear bassinets holding several infants, with a woman acting as a nurse hovering over them. For months, officials say, the house was home to “maternity tourists,” in this case, women from China who had paid tens of thousands of dollars to deliver their babies in the United States, making the...

Authorities have closed three upscale townhouses operating as a maternity center for Chinese mothers paying thousands of dollars to give birth in the United States so the children would automatically gain citizenship. Police and city inspectors found seven newborns and two mothers when they closed the homes for building code violations on March 8 in San Gabriel, a suburb east of Los Angeles that is home to a large Asian population. The women, who were Chinese and Taiwanese nationals and spoke little English, told officials their families had paid to send them to the United States to give birth, said...

Since the SD legislature has refused to address the birthright citizernship issue, I decided to give it another go with Sen. Thune on a national level. As that "IS" the level of government in which it rightly should be addressed. In my call to his office today I inquired: Can the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction” mean one thing for persons born and another for persons naturalized without it specifically separating the two in the initial language of the bill? If it does not, then that would mean that either there is no constitutional provision for anchor babies aka birthright...

DORMONT, Pa. -- Two Mexican immigrants are in custody after police said they found the couple's 2-year-old son alone in their Dormont apartment. Police have charged Raul Cruz-Romero, 24, and Yolando Pablo-Segundo, 19, with endangering the welfare of a child. The child was found Sunday at about 8 a.m. after neighbors reported the boy's constant crying, police said. "We found a 2-year-old Hispanic male child inside the apartment shaking, sobbing and crying hysterically," said Sgt. James Burke. Burke said a rescue crew entered the second-story apartment through a window because the front door was locked. He said the place was...

Reps. Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.), Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), John Campbell (R-Calif.), and Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) have cosponsored the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011 introduced by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa). All four Members signed onto the bill shortly after it was introduced in the 112th Congress. The bill currently has 56 cosponsors and amends current U.S. code to require at least one parent to be a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident for a new born to receive automatic citizenship. The Fourteenth Amendment extends citizenship to all persons born in the U.S. and "subject to the jurisdiction"; it also grants Congress the...

WASHINGTON — Whites continued to decline as a share of the American population in 2009, and they now represent less than half of all 3-year-olds, according to a Brookings Institution analysis of census data released Monday. The country’s young population is more diverse than ever, with whites now in the minority in nursery schools, preschools and kindergartens in eight states — Arizona, California, Florida, Hawaii, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas — and the District of Columbia, according to William H. Frey, a demographer at Brookings. That was up from six states in 2000. “We are on our way to...

Time is getting short. A new Pew Hispanic Center survey brings news that has to give pause to anyone who is concerned with America’s future. It says illegal alien mothers are giving birth to 8% of all the babies born in America. There were 350,000 such births and each one has the potential to multiple the number of new “legal” illegal aliens among us by staggering numbers. It is time to end this foolishness which makes gaining American citizenship like playing a game of tag. If most of the modern western countries and India have closed this loophole it’s time...

The Rapid City Journal reports that a pro-illegal alien Hispanic group called “Somos Republicans” is criticizing South Dakota State Representative Manny Steele (R-Sioux Falls) for his use of the term “anchor babies.” The term was used in discussion yesterday of HB 1199, a bill which sought to prevent illegal aliens from using their children born in the United States as a vehicle to escape judgment for breaking our laws and violating our national borders. During committee discussion of HB 1199, advocates of illegal immigration objected to the use of the term “anchor babies,” a term which describes children born in...

PHOENIX — Arizona lawmakers give their first hearing Monday to a bill that challenges automatic U.S. citizenship for children of illegal immigrants, the state's latest foray into the national debate over illegal immigration. The bill to be heard Monday by the Senate judiciary committee seeks a court interpretation on an element of the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to people born in the U.S. who are "subject to the jurisdiction" of this country. Supporters of the bill the amendment doesn't apply to the children of illegal immigrants because such families don't owe sole allegiance to the U.S. The bill's sponsors...

As lawmakers in several states push for an end to automatic citizenship to U.S.-born babies of illegal immigrants, a Hispanic organization that has won landmark civil rights cases says it will sue any state that passes such a law. LatinoJustice PRLDEF says that plans by legislators of several states to push for a law that would stop the tradition of birthright citizenship for those babies goes against the 14th Amendment. Those pushing for a law to end automatic U.S. citizenship to those babies say they are not intimated by the threat of a lawsuit – in fact, they say, they...

Pennsylvania State Representative and State Legislators for Legal Immigration (SLLI) founder Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler County), state lawmakers and Constitutional scholars from across the nation convened in Washington D.C. today to unveil historic model legislation to correct the monumental misapplication of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. This historic press conference was held on the same day as the swearing-in of the 112th Congress; encouraging that one of the first actions should be to uphold their oath and defend the Constitution to protect the states from the illegal alien invasion. “According to the 14th Amendment, the primary requirements for U.S....

At yesterday's launch of the campaign by state legislators to ban "birthright citizenship", activists from La Raza, LULAC and ACLU showed the tantrums and penchant for stifling dissent we have come to expect. One even shoved to the floor a senior citizen who calmly asked him to leave. Take a good look: this is who is fighting to maintain the scandal of "anchor babies" in America. They must and will be defeated. Video link: HEREJoin Stand With Arizona on Facebook (FReeper-run)

Steve King Moves Forward on Bill to End Birthright CitizenshipPosted by Stephanie Condon January 6, 2011 10:13 AM Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa, marking his first day as head of a House immigration panel, introduced a bill on Wednesday to end the practice of birthright citizenship. The bill would amend section 301 of the Immigration and Nationality Act to clarify those classes of individuals born in the United States who are nationals and citizens of the United States at birth. It's generally thought that the 14th Amendment provides a constitutional guarantee of citizenship for anyone born in the United...

Arizona took a public-relations punch to the gut after passing the nation's toughest anti-illegal-immigration law earlier this year, but anyone who thinks (or hopes) the state Legislature will lower its profile on the border-security issue in 2011 likely will be disappointed.The state is positioned like never before to expand its efforts to combat illegal immigration. The November election saw Republican Jan Brewer elected to a second term as governor, largely on the strength of her decision to sign the headline-making law, while the Republican Party added to its already sizable majorities in the state House and Senate.Most significantly of...

...the debate could resonate in Texas, where not only 1.5 million illegal immigrants are estimated to reside but at least 60,000 babies are added to their households annually. Parkland Memorial Hospital delivers more of those babies than any other hospital in the state. Last year at Parkland, 11,071 babies were born to women who were noncitizens, about 74 percent of total deliveries. Most of these women are believed to be in the country illegally. "If both parents are here illegally, should there be a reward for their illegal behavior?" Kyl said recently on a Sunday morning talk show. Changing the...

WASHINGTON – As one of its first acts, the new Congress will consider denying citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants who are born in the United States. Those children, who are now automatically granted citizenship at birth, will be one of the first targets of the Republican-led House when it convenes in January. GOP Rep. Steve King of Iowa, the incoming chairman of the subcommittee that oversees immigration, is expected to push a bill that would deny "birthright citizenship" to such children. The measure, assailed by critics as unconstitutional, is an indication of how the new majority intends to...

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- Four U.S. citizens were shot to death in separate attacks in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexican authorities said Monday. Chihuahua state prosecutors' spokesman Arturo Sandoval said Edgar Lopez, 35, of El Paso, Texas, was killed Sunday along with two Mexican men when gunmen opened fire on a group standing outside a house. On Saturday, a 26-year-old U.S. woman and an American boy were slain shortly after crossing an international bridge from El Paso. Giovanna Herrera and Luis Araiza, 15, were shot to death along with a Mexican man traveling with them just after 11...

Illegal Immigration: Lawmakers in 14 states are joining to restore the intended meaning of the 14th Amendment: that being a U.S. citizen requires more than just your mother sneaking past the Border Patrol. The architect of Arizona's immigration law, SB2070, announced Tuesday a new crusade to correct what he perceives as an unfortunate misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment that allows children of illegal immigrant parents to be considered U.S. citizens if they're born on U.S. soil. "This is a battle of epic proportions," Mesa Republican state Sen. Russell Pearce said. "We've allowed the hijacking of the 14th Amendment." He says...

Lawmakers in at least 14 states are collaborating on proposed legislation to deny U.S. citizenship to children of illegal immigrants, according to lawmakers, including the sponsor of Arizona's 2010 law targeting illegal immigration. "We're taking a leadership role on things that need to be fixed in America. We can't get Congress to do it," Republican state Sen. Russell Pearce, of Mesa, said Tuesday. "It's a national work group so that we have model legislation that we know will be successful, that meets the constitutional criteria." The efforts by the state legislators come amid calls to change the U.S. Constitution's 14th...

He was told there was a party at a brick house on Osborne Place, a quiet block set on a steep hill in the Bronx. He showed up last Sunday night as instructed, with plenty of cans of malt liquor. What he walked into was not a party at all, but a night of torture — he was sodomized, burned and whipped. All punishment, the police said Friday, for being gay. There were nine attackers, ranging from 16 to 23 years old and calling themselves the Latin King Goonies, the police said. Before setting upon their 30-year-old victim, they had...

Maria 'Chata' Leon, mother of 13 kids, ruled over a criminal empire with connections to a human smuggling ring...Leon, the then-44-year-old mother of 13 children, and the much-feared head of a drug-dealing dynasty, was stuck in the border town of Mexicali. It was one of her children, Danny "Clever" Leon, who, wielding an AK-47, had died in the 2008 shoot-out with police, and now she wanted to attend his funeral in the United States. Eventually, she would get her way right in front of LAPD gang officers. As politicians on all sides of the political spectrum argue about illegal immigration,...

The explosion of an issue on the national scene often seems to come from nowhere. That is really a misconception; what more accurately defines the process is that the issue bubbles to the surface of our culture and finally reaches what is called a “tipping point.” The definition of “tipping point” is the moment at which an object is displaced from a state of stable equilibrium into a new and different state. That has now occurred with what has become known as “anchor babies,” and the problem lies with the misinformation that has been bantered about. The common argument against...

Shortly after the terrible attacks on 9/11 Bin Laden released a video where he stated his ultimate goal is to bring down the United States of America. Now in the long-term aftermath of 9/11 we are witnessing challenges to our society that we would not be facing were it not for the ideological war declared against us. One of the more obvious affects is the depletion our national treasures by financing the massive military response to the attacks. However, as uncomfortable as this may be to all of us, the monetary challenges are minor in light of the real threats...

There have been numerous debates about “birthright” citizenship in recent weeks. As the Heritage Foundation has pointed out, the claim that the 14th Amendment confers citizenship on the children of visitors or illegal aliens is mistaken. Neither the text nor the legislative history supports such an interpretation. Perspective is needed. How many other countries have birthright citizenship? How many such children are there in the United States, and how much is this costing us? The Center for Immigration Studies has just released a study by Jon Feere that gives some answers. The report didn’t get the attention it should have...

Story on the perversion of the 14th amendment and anchor babies.

It appears that the GOP -- with the help of the Tea Parties, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and the Devil -- is out to revise the 14th Amendment to the point of meaninglessness. Maybe even write the amendment out of the Constitution itself -- if not discard the Constitution completely. And all so that poor foreign newborns, who have never hurt a fly, won't be awarded with free American citizenship upon first seeing the light of day. Makes you sick, doesn't it? At least that's how the legacy media, along with various immigration activists and liberal politicians, have chosen to...

YAKIMA, Wash--Just before 5 in the morning 39-year-old Rafaela Hernandez gets a ride to work. Like many campesinas, farm workers, she's in the fields by 5:30. This week she's picking pears. She heads home around noon. Sometimes the schedule changes or there's no work at all depending on the crops, but for the most part, from June until November, this is her life seven days a week. She says its pesado, duro, hard and heavy, work. But as she sees it, it could be worse. "Here at least we have work, food, en Mexico there isn't any", said Hernandez. 10...

The suggestion by at least three senators that the Constitution be amended to deny birthright citizenship to children of illegal aliens born in the United States has induced derogatory retorts that to do so would negate the 14th Amendment's protection of civil rights. Historical facts - ignored by those opposed - in fact demonstrate that such an amendment would reinstate the rule as originally intended by the adoption of the 14th Amendment in 1868. At issue is the first clause of the 14th Amendment, which states, "All persons born ... in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,...

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...

LOOK WHO'S 'NATIVIST' NOW!August 18, 2010 "Nativism in American politics has become so rampant that it is considered scandalous in Republican circles for a judge to acknowledge paying any attention to foreign courts and their legal rulings." -- New York Times editorial, Aug. 3, 2010 The New York Times runs this same smug editorial every few months -- at least I think it's the same editorial -- to vent its spleen at conservatives who object to American judges relying on foreign law to interpret the U.S. Constitution. But when it comes to anchor babies, The New York Times and the...

Last night I heard McCain say we should have hearings on immigration. Someone please tell Hannity and McCain that we have had at least three hearings in very recent years. Overwhelmingly they have showed that birthright citizenship was never intended for illegal aliens in the 14th amendment. Does McCain thnk we are stupid? http://judiciary.house.gov/legacy/6042.htm http://books.google.com/books?id=U2aiZ4xPirUC&lpg=PA1&dq=%22Dual%20citizenship%2C%20Birthright%20citizenship%22&pg=PA11#v=onepage&q&f=false On another Fox show with Bill Hemmer, he mis-stated that the 14th amendment included anchor babies. Either they are not doing their homework, or they are intentionally trying to mislead the uninformed masses.......... again.

Amnesty is defined as the action of governments by which persons or groups who have committed a criminal offense of a political nature that threatens the sovereignty of a country, are granted total or partial, conditional or unconditional, immunity from prosecution for that crime. Amnesty law, the core of “Comprehensive Immigration Reform”, is not the solution to our illegal alien crisis, despite misguided claims from the Left. Indeed, past amnesty law dramatically increased illegal immigration, and any suggestion of new amnesty law only encourages more of the same, with illegals crowding into the country to get in under the wire...

Adopted in 1868, the 14th Amendment defined citizenship — making it clear that former slaves and their descendents were American citizens. But part of that amendment, that everyone “born in” the US becomes a citizen, has become controversial during the immigration debate, with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and others calling for hearings on whether to repeal or revise the language. A Pew survey out this week notes that illegal immigrants who have children here (who then become insta-citizens) represent a not-insignificant portion of new births. Of the 4.3 million babies born in 2008, 340,000 were to illegal immigrants. The breakdown:...

Discussion about the 14th Amendment and its granting of citizenship to anyone born in the United States heated up again on Friday, this time focused on an attempt made by Harry Reid more than 15 years ago to end so-called birthright citizenship. As more than a couple news outlets pointed out on Friday, Mr. Reid did sponsor legislation in 1993 that would have, among other things, increased patrols at the border and rolled back the practice of giving citizenship to babies born in America to illegal immigrants. The Nevada Democrat’s office responded on Friday that some of those accounts were...

Five years ago, my family took a vacation to Niagara Falls. On our return across the Canadian border, U.S. Immigration officials detained us for several tense hours because we happened to be the unlucky renters of a car that matched some sort of suspect list. The same year Immigration officers were busily occupied with the travel risk of the Simpson family, hundreds of thousands of babies were born in hospitals all across the U.S. to parents who gained entry in the country illegally (obviously not driving Hertz rental cars). The parents' reward, other than a beautiful newborn: shiny new made-in-the-USA...

It is my considered opinion that Congress has authority under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment to define the jurisdiction of the United States. Indeed, it is my contention that Congress has exercised that power on many occasions, most recently in the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. Senator Jacob Howard, the author of the citizenship clause in the Fourteenth Amendment, defined who would fall within the "jurisdiction of the United States": [E]very person born within the limits of the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, is by virtue of natural law and national law a citizen of...

Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano on Friday rejected Republican calls to amend the Constitution to prevent children of illegal immigrants from gaining citizenship. “Any talk of amending the Constitution is just wrong,” Napolitano said in comments at the daily White House press briefing. Some Republicans have suggested the 14th Amendment should be changed to prevent the natural born children of illegal immigrants from obtaining citizenship. The amendment was approved after the Civil War to ensure citizenship for freed slaves, especially in the South. Critics argue that illegal immigrants come to the U.S. for the express purpose of winning citizenship for...

The Republican U.S. Senate nominee says she's tough on illegal immigration but draws the line on altering the amendment, which grants citizenship to all people born in the United States. BY MAEVE RESTON Republican U.S. Senate nominee Carly Fiorina said Thursday that she opposes calls from some conservatives to alter the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to all people born in the United States. Fiorina sought to appeal to conservative voters on immigration issues during her party's primary this spring, strongly backing Arizona's tough new law on illegal immigration, for example. But she drew the line Thursday at the question...

One of about every 12 babies born in the United States in 2008 was the offspring of unauthorized immigrants, a Pew Hispanic Center study released Wednesday concluded. According to the study, an estimated 340,000 of the 4.3 million babies born in this country that year had parents who were in the United States without legal documentation. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution stipulates that those children automatically become U.S. citizens, but some members of Congress are pushing to change that provision. That effort -- rooted in the debate over illegal immigration, particularly of people from Mexico -- has created some...

One in twelve babies born in the U.S. in 2008 were the offspring of illegal immigrants, according to a new study, a statistic that could inflame the debate over birthright citizenship. Undocumented immigrants make up slightly more than 4% of the U.S. adult population. However, their babies represented twice that share, or 8%, of all births on U.S. soil in 2008, according to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center's report. The report, based on Census Bureau data and analysis of demographic characteristics of the undocumented population, also found that the lion's share, or 79%, of the 5.1 million children of illegal...

PHOENIX — About one out of every 15 children in the United States was born to a family where at least one parent is in this country illegally, according to a new report today. And four out of five of them are “anchor babies,” the Pew Hispanic Center concluded. The figures, which the organization calculated based on 2009 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, are the best estimates to date of the scope of the issue which has resulted in calls to amend the U.S. Constitution to deny automatic citizenship to children solely by virtue of their birth within this country. That...

Immigration: The 14th Amendment was written to guarantee citizenship for freed slaves. It's been misinterpreted to give citizenship to children of illegal aliens. Now some GOP leaders want to restore its original meaning. In Texas this year, some 60,000 so-called "anchor babies" will be born to the 1.5 million illegal aliens estimated to reside there. They're called that because under the current interpretation of the 14th Amendment they're automatic citizens, encouraging more illegals to arrive and making it hard to deport those already here. "There is a problem," House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, told NBC's "Meet The Press" Sunday....