I was originally going to write this in as part of the last “In Defense of the Constitution” post, but after I realized that, once again, my writing on the First Amendment was getting to be long and detailed enough on its own, I decided to split it up. Originally, this post was supposed to go up about a week earlier than it has, as well; once again, life got in my way. Anyway, back when I had intended to write this, several prominent members of the Republican Party called for an Amendment to the Constitution to essentially remove Section 1 from the Fourteenth Amendment. Again, according to the National Archives, the section in question is:
“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. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” -Section 1, Amendment XIV, United States Constitution
In short, this section guarantees that if you were born on American soil, you are automatically a citizen. Certain members of the GOP want to remove this section in order to combat the perceived anchor baby problem, which allegedly allows illegal immigrants to cross the border, have a baby, and get in the fast lane for citizenship. This argument is so completely flawed that it is difficult to decide where to even begin, but I’ll start by pointing out one minor detail.
More Like the Slow Lane for Citizenship
Sure, the child will automatically have U.S. citizenship, but that does not extend to the parents- at all, at least automatically. For the parents to acquire citizenship in the United States, they would have to wait until the child turns 21 and fills out the proper forms for a “Family Reunification”, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. So yeah, sneak across the border and have that baby; you’re not going to be able to become a citizen that way for two decades! I can’t find any firm figures on how long the naturalization process usually is, but it can’t possibly be longer than that.
This issue has become a distraction in the overall immigration debate; with the benefit to so-called “anchor babies” being a very delayed one at best, we have to wonder why this issue is even being brought up…never mind, it’s an election year, so of course it’s going to be brought up. Especially given the passions kindled by Arizona’s SB1070 earlier this year and the general madness of this election cycle as it is, it’s not surprising at all that many senior Republicans are calling for the Fourteenth Amendment to be reexamined. In reality, it’s those Republicans who need to have their heads examined!
Let me just lay this right out there: repealing the Fourteenth Amendment will not solve illegal immigration. The repeal measure is, however, anti-immigrant. The anchor baby “threat” is so ridiculous it should be dismissed. However, I do have to give the fear machine some credit on this one: they found a particular issue that many people aren’t able to discredit right off the bat. Granted, I’m no expert, but I honestly had no idea whether the mother automatically got citizenship privileges or a green card, or some other form of fast-track to citizenship by having a child in America. Having been born an American citizen myself, birthright citizenship wasn’t something I’d ever really thought about until this controversy erupted. But now that we know it’s only a fear tactic, let’s dig a little deeper into why this issue is such a failure in every way except its apparent purpose of driving fear of “the other” into voters.
Survey Says: This Issue is a Non-issue
Much of the rhetoric behind the anchor baby issue is being driven by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (R- South Carolina), Sen. John McCain (R- Arizona), and select other senior members of the GOP. Well, the folks at Politifact looked at some of Senator Graham’s remarks on the issue, and has found that the practice of people coming to the U.S. solely to have a baby isn’t really happening. Indeed, while many illegal immigrants are having babies in the U.S., that’s more a consequence of their already being here in the first place. In short, it’s a symptom of the larger issue of illegal immigration rather than one of the causes of it.
Another reason why repeal of the 14th Amendment isn’t going to happen is because of just how hard it is to do a Constitutional Amendment, which is necessary to override another one after all. I don’t think 3/4 of the states are sufficiently crazy to even consider such an Amendment; the 14th Amendment’s guarantees of equality for all in terms of citizenship and representation are about as American as you can get. Third, the New York Times points out an interesting irony with a potential repeal of birthright citizenship; it would create more government! Isn’t that contrary to what conservatives value?
Repealing the Fourteenth Amendment is a bad idea. It makes us look bad as a nation that we’re even seriously discussing such a monumental step backward, and it will not solve the problem of illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants are coming for the economic opportunities, and until we can make it harder for them to come illegally and easier to legally immigrate, the problem will not go away. The 14th Amendment is at the core of who we are and what we as a nation stand for, and to get rid of it would send exactly the wrong message while we are trying to promote equality around the world. America is a land of immigrants, and undoing the 14th Amendment is exactly the wrong course we should be taking. We should be doing the opposite, enhancing our promotion of equality and addressing the shortcomings we still have as a nation. Call me an idealist, but that would do much more for our cultural self-image and our nation as a whole than any sort of bigoted ploy by a small but vocal faction.
The In Defense of the Constitution, Part II by The New Age of Politics, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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