Steve King Introduces Bill To Stop 'Anchor Babies'
Posted: 01/04/2013 5:37 pm EST | Updated: 01/04/2013 6:16 pm EST
Elise Foley
Huffington Post
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Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) has long advocated for an end to birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to undocumented parents.(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON -- It's the first week of the 113th Congress, and one House member is already trying to stop children born in the United States to undocumented parents -- whom he calls "anchor babies" -- from gaining citizenship.
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), an outspoken hardliner on immigration, introduced a bill on Thursday that would "clarify those classes of individuals born in the United States who are nationals and citizens of the United States at birth." The Supreme Court has consistently held that anyone born in the United States, regardless of their parents' immigration status, should receive citizenship under the 14th Amendment.
King disagrees, as do 13 co-sponsors on the bill, including Reps. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) and Mo Brooks (R-Ala.).
"We need a common sense solution to fix the flawed interpretation of the Constitution's citizenship clause, and 'The Birthright Citizenship Act of 2013' does just that," he said in a statement on Friday. "The current practice of extending U.S. citizenship to hundreds of thousands of 'anchor babies' must end because it creates a magnet for illegal immigration into our country. Now is the time to ensure that the laws in this country do not encourage law breaking."
King has long been a supporter of stopping automatic citizenship and introduced a similar bill on the first day of the last legislative session in 2011.
According to the 14th Amendment, "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." But King argues that was not meant to include children of undocumented immigrants.
"The framers did not consider the babies of illegals when they framed the 14th amendment because we didn’t have immigration law at the time so they could not have wanted to confer automatic citizenship on the babies of people who were unlawfully in the United States," he told CityView in November 2010.
The issue of "anchor babies" was briefly in the mainstream in mid-2010, when a number of Republican politicians, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), said they would be willing to consider whether automatic citizenship should be blocked for children of undocumented immigrants. Sens. Paul Vitter (R-La.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) introduced a congressional resolution in January 2011 to amend the constitution to end birthright citizenship.
Now, though, it's unlikely to gather much steam, as members of Congress turn their attention to immigration reform that could confer legal status to some undocumented immigrants. A spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who controls the House legislative calendar, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the bill is likely to get to the floor.
Steve King Introduces Bill To Stop 'Anchor Babies'
MSNBC's Chris Matthews Sneers: Congressman Steve King Is a Bigot
By Scott Whitlock | January 11, 2013 | 11:43
newsbusters.org
Chris Matthews on Thursday smeared Congressman Steve King as a racist, declaring that the Republican representative is "prejudiced against Latinos." The liberal cable anchor came to the conclusion while discussing King's attempts to change the 14th Amendment to exclude so-called "anchor babies."
Matthews played a 2011 clip of the congressman asserting that illegals "sneak into the United States for...the purposes of having the baby" and then " they get the little birth certificate with their little feet prints on there." The host pounced, "And the derogatory way he talks, you got the sense he might just be prejudiced against Latinos. Just a guess. Just a guess." [See video below. MP3 audio here.] Guest Michael Steele retorted, "I know Steve well and I don't get that sense from him."
Offensive, hyperbolic smears against conservatives are common on MSNBC. On Wednesday, Martin Bashir compared Rick Scott, the GOP governor of Florida, to a murderous communist dictator. On February 14, 2012, Bashir said that Rick Santorum was just like Joseph Stalin.
On November 30, 2010, host Chris Jansing mocked Congressman King as a "radical right-winger" just prior to interviewing him.
A transcript of the January 10 exchange is below:
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Remember anchor babies, to use a term another way? Congressman Steve King introduced a bill back in 2011, two years ago now, to clarify in his words the 14th Amendment. The amendment, by the way, grants citizenship to anyone born -- it was written after the Civil War for African-Americans, obviously. Well, King argued it was not meant to include babies of illegal immigrants. Take a look.
REP. STEVE KING: Anchor babies are babies that are born in the United States to an illegal mother. And the practice over the years has been to grant automatic citizenship to babies born on U.S. soil. They sneak into the United States for the -- many of them for the purposes of having the baby. They get the little birth certificate with their little feet prints on there, and then they either stay here or they go back to their home country and wait until that child comes of age. And then that child -- they use that child to apply to bring in the family, the nuclear family, then the extended family. And it's out of control.
MATTHEWS: Well, you might expect something like that from the man who questioned whether Barack Obama's mom might have sent his birth announcement by telegram from Kenya.
Well, King is at it again with anchor babies. He introduced a new bill last week, with the statement: "The current practice of extending U.S. citizenship to hundreds of thousands of anchor babies must end because it creates a magnet for illegal immigration into our country."
Let me ask you. There's something about the way that guy talks that I don't like. He talks about having illegal mothers -- illegal mothers, like having the baby was the illegal act, and the little feet, and the little feet prints. And the derogatory way he talks, you got the sense he might just be prejudiced against Latinos. Just a guess. Just a guess.
STEELE: Well, I don't know. I know Steve well and I don't get that sense from him.
MSNBC's Chris Matthews Sneers: Congressman Steve King Is a Bigot | NewsBusters.org
