State lawmakers take on the U.S. Constitution and the issue of birthright babies

VideoPhoto
Posted: 5:55 PM
Last Updated: 1 hour and 15 minutes ago
By: Jay Reynolds

PHOENIX - The national immigration debate is taking center stage in Arizona.

State lawmakers plan to file bills as soon as today that would stop babies born to non-citizen parents from becoming U.S. citizens.

"This bill we take very personal," said Sandra Castro.

Born in the United States to illegal immigrants, Castro sees this bill as a slap in the face.

"We just take it as a personal attack and we feel it's something that's just targeted as another anti-immigration tactic," Castro said.

But the sponsors of the bills, Sen. Ron Gould and Rep. John Kavanaugh, told me there are many reasons to tackle this issue.

"It encourages illegal immigration and it greatly increases the cost to state governments," Kavanaugh said.

"We want the Supreme Court to rule on the issue of children being born to illegal immigrants, which they've never really done," Gould said.

They add, now is the time.

They are joining with about a dozen other states in filing a birthright citizenship bill.

"We can't get Congress to move so we're going to try and get the ball rolling at the local level," Kavanaugh said, hoping after the bill passes either the U.S. Supreme Court or the U.S. Congress will have to act.

"Because the federals won't engage, they wont do anything," Gould sai.

That leaves Castro to wonder why do they want to change anything at all?

"We're tomorrow's teachers, we're tomorrow's firefighters, we're tomorrow's workers so we benefit this society and I don't understand why we're being targeted," said Castro.

Stay with ABC15 for updates.

http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_ph ... ght-babies