Birthright limits would harm children, critics say

by Daniel González - Mar. 21, 2011 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

In many ways, Norma Jimenez is a typical teenager in America.

She tries to never miss an episode of "Grey's Anatomy," she loves spending weekends in front of the TV and she is partial to chicken Caesar salads.

Jimenez, 19, is also a top student. She graduated last year from Carl Hayden High School with a 3.7 GPA and a desire to become a registered nurse.

But because she was brought to the U.S. illegally from Mexico when she was 1, she doesn't have a Social Security number, meaning she can't get financial aid for college or legally work in the U.S.

"I'm very frustrated," Jimenez said. "At the end, you just see yourself as trapped."

Hundreds of thousands of other children would find themselves in that same sort of economic and social limbo should efforts succeed to restrict birthright citizenship. If the interpretation of the 14th Amendment were changed, in the future, the 300,000 to 400,000 children of illegal immigrants born every year in the United States - as Jimenez's brother and sister were - would not be citizens of this country.

"I'm frustrated, and I wasn't born here," Jimenez said, adding the situation would be worse for children born in the United States.

David Leopold, national president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the move to abolish birthright citizenship would lead to an even larger group of so-called Dream Act kids like Jimenez, the 2 million young adults who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children, raised here and consider this country to be their home.

Yet without legal status, which the proposed Dream Act legislation would confer, they live in a shadow economy, often viewed as a burden - the same future that children born in the U.S. would face if birthright citizenship were eliminated.

"You'd create a whole underclass here," Leopold said. "You'd create an underclass of people who were permanently ineligible to participate in the country, akin to something you have in Europe. . . . It would intensify and increase the undocumented problem we have in the country."

It appears increasingly unlikely that opponents of birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants will make much progress this year.

Republican lawmakers have introduced bills at both the state and federal levels aimed at ending the longstanding practice of granting automatic citizenship to nearly every child born in the U.S. regardless of their parents' status.

But in Arizona, the state Senate on Thursday rejected the legislative package. The bills would have defined children as citizens of the U.S. if they had at least one parent who was a legal immigrant or U.S. citizen.

Sponsors of the bills, including Arizona Sen. Ron Gould, R-Lake Havasu City, say one reason illegal immigrants come to the United States is so their U.S-born children can petition for them to become citizens.

Parents may hope their children's citizenship can help them stay in the U.S., but immigration rules make that unlikely.

Parents who entered the U.S. illegally would have to wait until their citizen-child was 21 before he or she could file immigration papers for them. And even then, the parents would have to return to their home country and wait 10 more years before they could qualify for green cards, Leopold said.

Under immigration laws adopted in 1996, immigrants seeking permanent residency through an immediate relative face a 10-year bar as punishment for entering illegally.

Still, opponents say they will continue to work on changing citizenship rules. State Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, sponsored the House version of the birthright-citizenship bill.

"Anything we can do to discourage new illegal immigrants from coming or current illegals from staying is a benefit to the law and American society," he said.

Jimenez's mother, Maria Gloria Hernandez, 42, said she came to the United States to look for work so she could provide a better life for Norma.

A single mother at the time, she crossed the border illegally in 1992, walking through the desert near Agua Prieta. Someone else, using a birth certificate belonging to a U.S. citizen, drove baby Norma through the port of entry.

In Arizona, Hernandez married another undocumented immigrant from Mexico, Jaime Hernandez, 42. They are the parents of Laura, 13, and Jose, 9, Norma's U.S.-citizen siblings.

Sitting on a sofa in their Phoenix home, the couple said they initially planned to return to Mexico after earning money by working in the United States. But one of the main reasons they have remained is to raise their children.

"I don't want to take them to a country they don't know or to a country where they would suffer from hunger," said Jaime Hernandez, who works as a welder. His wife has worked as a field hand and a house cleaner and has ironed clothes. She now stays home to care for their children.

As U.S. citizens, their two youngest children are enrolled in KidsCare, the state's public health-care program for children.

The couple said they realize that some people don't think the children of illegal immigrants should receive public benefits, but they disagree. They said they are raising their children to be productive members of this country.

"More than anything, we want our children to be good citizens, good professionals, good workers for the United States," Jaime said. "We want them to be good at what whatever profession they choose."

And if their U.S.-born children weren't citizens, would they still stay in the United States, given the frustration their undocumented daughter Norma has been through?

The couple lowered their heads. They remained silent for several moments.

"We would still stay here," Jaime finally said. "Even if they didn't have their papers, this is their country."

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