Children gaining birthright citizenship are pejoratively referred to as "anchor babies" because they provide an anchor in the U.S. for family members seeking to enter the country legally.
When anchor babies reach age 21, they can petition the government to grant their parents and siblings permanent resident status.
The number of babies gaining birthright citizenship has been steadily rising and is now estimated to top 300,000 and reach as high as 400,000 a year, according to John Feere of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). The Pew Hispanic Center puts the estimate at 340,000 a year.
In the most recent analysis, nearly three-quarters of all children of undocumented immigrants were U.S. citizens, and the children of illegals cost taxpayers some $52 billion a year in education expenses alone, Judicial Watch disclosed.
Nearly 4 million illegal aliens living in the U.S. have at least one child who is a citizen. And 66 percent of the immigrants who were granted permanent residency in a recent year were sponsored by family members who were American citizens.
Federal agents recent raided several sites in California that allegedly provided thousands of pregnant Chinese women the opportunity to give birth in the U.S. and thereby gain American citizenship for their children, The Fiscal Times reported.
But critics charge that providing citizenship to the children of illegal aliens was never the intent of the law.
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1868, reads in part: "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."
The law was intended to protect the rights of native-born freed slaves in the years following the Civil War. The U.S. did not limit immigration in 1868, so there were no illegal immigrants and the granting of citizenship to illegals was therefore not an issue.
In 1866, Sen. Jacob Howard from Michigan indicated the intent of the amendment by stating: "Every person born within the limits of the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, is by virtue of natural law and national law a citizen of the United States. This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers."
Now several members of Congress are taking aim at birthright citizenship along with Donald Trump.
"I don't have any doubt that the immigration statement that Trump put out is going to help provide momentum for a number of different pieces of immigration enforcement legislation, and especially birthright citizenship," Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, who has co-sponsored a bill to restrict birthright citizenship, told the Washington Examiner.
Although some argue that changing the law would require a constitutional amendment, Feere of the CIS said: "Congress could without a doubt clarify the scope of the 14th Amendment through legislation."
King's bill would confer citizenship only on children born in the U.S. who have at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen, legal permanent resident, or member of the U.S. military.
Said King: "I'm glad Donald Trump has set this up on the table and now the American public can have an open discussion."
Reference online site - Newsmax.com
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