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Article Launched: 12/09/2005 01:00:00 AM

Bill to end birthright citizenship
By Eunice Moscoso
Cox News Service


WASHINGTON - A key House committee approved a major immigration bill Thursday that increases penalties for employers who hire illegal immigrants, stiffens sentences for human smugglers and makes illegal entry into the United States a felony.

But some House Republicans want the measure to go further and will attempt to add provisions that would end birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants and call for the construction of fences along parts of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The overall bill, sponsored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is slated for a House vote next week during which amendments could be voted on.

"We must reinvest meaning in citizenship, getting rid of the incentive to birth so-called anchor babies on U.S. soil," said Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., who heads a 92-member House caucus pushing for stronger immigration controls. Many members of the group support the repeal of birthright citizenship. The U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants are referred to by some as "anchor babies" because once they turn 18, they can petition for relatives from abroad to come legally to the United States.

At a Capitol Hill press conference, Tancredo was joined by about 20 other House members, some of whom referred to the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States as a "massive invasion" and a danger to national security.

Rep. Edward Royce, R-Calif., said that he is preparing a package of amendments with Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, that would include a provision to add a dozen 30-mile fences along the border at key crossings.

Royce said that the fences -- at a cost of $1 million per mile -- would make it very difficult for smugglers and drug traffickers to operate through those corridors. He also said that it would dissuade terrorist groups from sneaking operatives in through the Southern border.

Rep. Charles Norwood, R-Ga., said that the Sensenbrenner bill "doesn't get the job done" because it does not do enough to address the 80,000 illegal immigrants convicted of crimes that are at large in the United States. Norwood has introduced legislation that would authorize local police departments to help enforce federal immigration laws. He said the law would help find illegal immigrants who have committed crimes but escaped deportation.

Without it, he said, "this bill is only an immigration control soundbite." Other Republican House members at the press conference included Reps. Ted Poe of Texas, J.D. Hayworth of Arizona, Sue Myrick of North Carolina, Virgil Goode of Virginia, and Georgians Tom Price, Phil Gingrey and Nathan Deal. Deal is a longtime proponent of ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants.

The Sensenbrenner bill -- which expands a pilot program and makes it mandatory for employers to verify the legal status of their workers -- does not include President Bush's plan for a temporary worker program that would allow millions of illegal immigrants to apply for short-term work visas.

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee said the enforcement-heavy bill was being rushed through to satisfy political interests and does not address immigration in a comprehensive way. The measure passed on a party-line vote of 23-15.

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said the bill amounted to "anti-immigrant legislation that has nothing to do with security at the border" and that Republicans are once again exploiting Americans' fear of terrorism to further an anti-immigrant agenda.

"It's so heinous and extreme..that this bill can not be fixed," he said.

Immigrant and refugee advocates also decried the legislation, which would limit review of asylum granting decisions and allow the United States to deny visas to countries that do not take back deported immigrants.

"The United States has long stood as a beacon of hope for those fleeing persecution and repression. But this misguided bill puts asylum seekers at grave risk of being deported back into the hands of their persecutors," said Eleanor Acer, director of the refugee protection program of Human Rights First.

Democrats said that changing the law to make illegal presence in the United States a felony instead of a civil offense would turn 1 million and a half children into aggravated felons.