The Debate Over Illegal Immigration Gets Even Crazier

June 4, 2010
by Chip Wood



Remember the expression, to swallow a camel but choke on a gnat?

That’s how I feel about the reaction of several people who commented on what I recently wrote about illegal immigration. The first column was called Arizona, Si! Obama, No! You can click here read it. http://www.personalliberty.com/liberty/ ... -obama-no/

The second ran a week later and was titled Anchor Babies and the Illegal 14th. If you missed it, click here to read that one. http://www.personalliberty.com/liberty/ ... legal14th/

The three most important points I made in those two successive columns were:

The Federal government has refused to protect us from an illegal invasion. Because of this failure by our national government, Arizona had a responsibility to its citizens to act.
Of all the crazy aspects of this situation, the most insane is our policy of granting immediate and automatic citizenship to any child born in this country—even if both parents were illegal immigrants.
The justification for this absurd policy—and many others that have allowed the Federal government to expand dramatically and dangerously—is the 14th Amendment. My research has convinced me that this amendment was never legally ratified.
Now those are some pretty big issues, wouldn’t you say? We’re talking about a president who flatly refuses to enforce the law. About an absurd policy that creates instant citizens of the offspring of illegal immigrants. And about a conspiracy—there’s no other word for it—to twist and distort our most important legal document, so it can be used to enslave us.

I thought that most people who read those columns would respond to one of these truly momentous points. I anticipated receiving some interesting, intelligent and well-informed arguments—some agreeing with me, some not.

And while there were many comments that fit that description, there were a surprising number that did not. One of the most mind-numbing replies I’ve ever received to anything I’ve written for Personal Liberty Alerts came from a David Warheit, who argued:

“Has the legality of the 14th Amendment ever been ruled upon by the U.S. Supreme Court? Of course it has, in hundreds if not thousands of cases. Every single case decided by the Supreme Court which cites the 14th Amendment serves as a ratification of its legality.â€