Thread: The ambiguous 14th Amendment!

MARIE PARENTE: The ambiguous 14th Amendment!
By Marie Parente
MILFORD DAILY NEWS
Posted Sep 23, 2009 @ 12:23 AM

NO DATA — Recently, while in a local coffee shop fellow customers asked about the "anchor baby" issue.

An anchor baby is defined as an offspring of an illegal immigrant or other non-citizen, who under current legal interpretation of the 14th Constitutional Amendment becomes a United States citizen at birth. For example, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is an anchor baby.

His mother, a Mexican citizen, married his late father, a native Nicaraguan, who worked in Mexico as an American-Citi-Bank executive. When Richardson's birth was imminent, his mother crossed the border to Pasadena, Calif., to give birth. She and her husband believed "more opportunities" for their unborn child existed in the United States.

U.S. citizenship for anchor babies brings clout, opportunity and the right to live, work and study in the United States. Many such children grow up in Mexico and come to the United States as adults for work and study. Many border hospitals and clinics have collaborated with tourist centers to attract illegal female aliens of modest means to use their "maternity packages."

"What it amounts to," said Mark Krikorian, CEO of the Immigration Studies Center, "is the purchase of U.S. citizenship."

A considerable number of poor, pregnant illegal immigrants, some already in labor, cross the border, surreptitiously, to give birth. Thus, their anchor babies pull their illegal alien mothers, fathers and siblings into permanent residency.

While illegal aliens are ineligible for public benefits, their children and anchor babies qualify for public assistance that benefits all family members. In many cases, these families receive translators, advocates, food stamps, health care and cash/credit cards, clothing allowances, fuel assistance, education and housing allowances.

The sheer numbers are unfathomable. In 2003, 70 percent of the 2,300 babies born in Stockton, Calif., hospitals were anchor babies. Numerous California hospitals were forced to close. Illegal aliens use emergency rooms as their primary caretakers. Under emergency treatment statutes, hospitals are mandated to give medical treatment. The definition of emergency is flexible and vague enough to include headaches or hang nails.

Pennsylvania's illegal immigrant population costs its taxpayers about $728 million per year for education, medical care and incarceration. Some states, like Massachusetts, choose to subsidize certain non-reimbursable health care coverage for more than 30,000 non-citizens.

In 2006, the Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform estimated Massachusetts taxpayers were burdened with annual costs of about $580 million because of illegal aliens residing in the state.

According to State House sources, exclusive of the Health Connector, the Bay State's Medicaid budget totals $9 billion, an increase of $2 billion over the last two years.

Author Fred Elbel estimates there are currently between 287,000 and 363,000 children born to illegal aliens each year. An estimate by investment firm Bear Stearns reported the actual number of illegal immigrants could be as high as 20 million or more, which would in effect, double the number of anchor babies mentioned by Elbel.

The funds that federal and state governments grant to anchor babies, their families and border crossers amount to virtual taxes on U.S. citizens who are forced to subsidize illegal immigration. The problem will worsen if amnesty is given to current illegal aliens, as their immediate and extended relatives living in their home country would qualify to come to the United States. Thus, "chain migration," disguised as family reunification will permit illegal aliens to sponsor their relatives to come here for the same largesse.

How did this happen? What does our Constitution state about this de facto open border policy?

Proponents of amnesty cite language in the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution as proof of "equal rights" for illegal aliens.

Section I of the Fourteenth Amendment reads, "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."

Litigation regarding jurisdiction is on the rise. Some jurists believe illegal aliens should be deported with their un-emancipated minor anchor babies in tow.

The power to distinguish between legal citizens and illegal non-citizens is a fundamental attribute of nationhood. The Congress is invested with the power to establish uniform rules of naturalization.

A national journal offers this thought about legitimate and deliberate political debate. "What will our society look like after a few more decades of such unrestricted invasion?"

Most important, the U.S. House of Representative seats are fixed at 435, meaning if one state gains a seat because of increased population, another state must lose one.

Congressional district reapportionment will be unfairly weighted by the count of illegal noncitizens in the federal district census and violates the "one man, one vote" rule.

Congress, should, immediately, clarify the phrase, "subject to the jurisdiction thereof," to simply mean there is no automatic citizenship for anchor babies or people who do not swear allegiance to the United States and evade and deliberately ignore the same laws and Constitution respected by legal Americans.

The American people have voiced their strong opposition to a single-payer health care system and changes to their current health care coverage. Congress should forget amnesty, or the next census count will occur in voting booths!

Marie J. Parente of Milford, a former state representative and town official, writes on alternate Wednesdays for the Daily News.

http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x1 ... -Amendment

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