illegal Immigrants' Anchor Babies: A Threat to America

When a baby of an illegal alien mother is born in the U.S., they automatically become a U.S. citizen. Their illegal families, who are not in themselves eligible for free, public assistance and benefits, are suddenly able to anchor onto the benefits of that child and therefore get approved for public housing, free rent, food stamps, Medicaid, unemployment, Earned Income Credit, and a host of other benefits, including the automatic citizenship of the parents once the child becomes an adult. These babies are referred to as "anchor babies" or "jackpot babies." No wonder illegal aliens are flooding the United States and having babies.

This is a true personal situation. A few years ago a friend's grandchild was born with a mild case of cerebral palsy. At first they didn't know what was wrong with her and she had to undergo lots of testing. She also incurred a lot of medical expenses, in general, for problems she was having. Her father worked in law enforcement and made approximately $1.00 and hour too much to be eligible for Medicaid for the baby. They were drowning in medical expense. The mother couldn't work because she had to take care of the baby and had another child at home. When they tried to get Medicaid to help with the medical cost, they were refused. The case worker had the audacity to tell the mother that if her baby had been born an immigrant, she would have automatically been eligible for Medicaid. What kind of message is this? Law-abiding parents cannot get medical help for their children who desperately need it but all an immigrant child has to do is be blessed with illegal immigrant parents.

The reason "anchor babies" are able to become a US citizen is because of the flawed misinterpretation of the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment in the US Constitution, which reads:

Citizenship Clause: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."

Senator Jacob Howard, the author of the clause, said "This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the Government of the United States."

But that is exactly what is happening. At the time it was written, it's purpose was to secure rights for freed slaves who had always lived in the United States but had not been considered citizens until after they were granted freedom from slavery. This Amendment protected them from being shipped out of the country.

It's obvious abuse is now rewarding immigrants who are in the United States illegally, and by all rights should be deported back to their country, by giving them with free housing, health care, financial support, food stamps and a host of other resources that hard working, tax paying, American citizens aren't even eligible for.

According to a 2006 American Daily article, Think Illegal Immigrants Contribute To This Country?...Think Again!, written by Dave Gibson, there are approximately 350,000 anchor babies born every year. The cost for providing government benefits to anchor babies is over $118 billion dollars annually. Those figures increase every year.

Look at the figure of this one illegal family's effect on health care cost, as outlined in the 2005 spring issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons:

"Cristobal Silverio entered the states illegally in 1997 to work as a fruit picker, bringing with him his wife and three children, all illegal aliens. The following year Mrs. Silverio gave birth to a fourth child, and with that birth the family had an "anchor baby"-an American citizen by birth, who provided the entire Silverio family with a free pass to remain in the United States permanently. Unfortunately the baby was born prematurely, spent three months in the neonatal incubator, and cost the San Joaquin Hospital more than $300,000. Meanwhile, the oldest Silverio daughter married an illegal alien and gave birth to her own anchor baby, and then Cristobal's wife gave birth to yet another baby.

The two Silverio anchor babies generate $1000 per month in public welfare funding for the family; the premature baby gets $600 a month for asthma, and the healthy baby gets $400. The Silverio family earned $18,000 last year for picking fruit, and the government gave them another $12,000 for their two anchor babies."

And this is one family of illegal immigrants! Multiply that by the remaining 349,999 anchor babies born each year, then multiply that by how many years we will have to endure this attack on our American resources.

Not only is the attack in health care a financial one, but it also an attack on our country's successful battle against containing communicable diseases. Illegal aliens are crossing the borders without any type of medical clearance and they are bringing with them a host of diseases and illnesses, many of which have all but been wiped out of America. Now these diseases are returning to the United States through affected immigrants. Some examples are Tuberculosis (TB), Chagas disease, Leprosy, Dengue fever, Polio, and Malaria.

It's heart breaking to think about the men and women who lost their lives fighting to protect our Constitution and now our country allows such blatant disrespect and abuse of that same Constitution.

Some members of Congress do realize that there is a need to act. In 2001, Rep. Howard Stump (AZ) introduced H.R 190 to deny citizenship to children of illegal alien mothers. In 2003, Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA), introduced the Citizenship Reform Act of 2003 (H.R. 1567), to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to deny birthright citizenship to children born in the United States to parents who are not U.S. citizens or permanent resident aliens. The Citizenship Reform Amendment (H.J. Res. 44), introduced by Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL), would have amended the U.S. Constitution to provide that no one born in the U.S. will be granted automatic U.S. citizenship unless a parent is a U.S. citizen or has been lawfully admitted for permanent residence at the time of the birth. Unfortunately, none of these bills survived.

On April 19, 2007 Representative Nathan Deal (R-GA) introduced H.R. 1940, The Birthright Citizenship Act of 2007. H.R. 1940 would end the process of granting automatic birthright citizenship to the babies born in the United States to illegal aliens. This bill needs the support of all hard working, tax paying, legitimate American Citizens and their elected public servants.

Americans who are fed up with this abuse should contact their representatives and demand they cosponsor H.R. 1940.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor%5Fbaby
http://www.the14th.org/html/the_14th_amendment.html
http://americandaily.com/article/13094
http://www.jpands.org/vol10no1/cosman.pdf
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-1940
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/
http://www.voiceforvoters.com/?cat=3
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43275
http://www.mmlv.us/disease.html
http://www.theamericanresistance.com/issues/anchor_babies.html
http://www.jpands.org/vol10no1/cosman.pdf