Thompson Against Anchor Babies
15 September 2007Here is a great one to discuss. The so-called anchor baby is where an illegal immigrant comes here just to have their baby so that the baby is an automatic citizen. It has been so badly abused and Thompson has announced his willingness to revisit this law.
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Fred Thompson speaks out on immigration issues
On his campaign swing through Florida, Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson has hammered away illegal immigration, saying that America must secure its borders to ensure national security.
Friday, he went a step further.
Thompson, a former senator from Tennessee, said it might be time to reconsider the country’s long-standing practice — one prescribed by the Constitution — of granting citizenship to any child born on U.S. soil.
“That law was created in another time and place for valid reasons,” Thompson said during a campaign stop here. “It probably needs to be revisited.”
The granting of citizenship to anyone born in the United States is included in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
It says, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside.”
The U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed that in an 1898 court decision involving a Chinese man born in the U.S. to parents who were not citizens.
Since then, anyone born in the U.S. has been automatically granted citizenship apart from rare exceptions involving the children of foreign diplomats.
Friday, Thompson for the second day in a row said he was willing to reconsider that.
“The question is whether or not it would require a constitutional amendment or change in law,” he said. He also said he wasn’t sure such a provision would ever pass.
“That one, I’m not sure about.”
Thompson said that the issue of automatic citizenship for children of illegal immigrants is not his primary concern.
“It’s not their fault,” he said. “They don’t determine where they’re born.”
A bigger problem, he said, was so-called “chain migration” the practice of giving preferential treatment to the immediate family members of children who are born here.
Thompson said under current law, those children can “grow up and be used as anchors to bring in other people.” He said he was “dead set” against that.
Thompson’s willingness to entertain the idea of withholding citizenship for children born here illustrates how important the immigration issue has become to Republican presidential candidates.
All have taken a hard line against illegal immigration but as of Friday no other contender has gone as far as Thompson
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on September 15th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Fred is absolutely right as always, it is not the childs fault, it is their illegal immigrant parents who are abusing our law.
Had we simply enforced our law at our borders this wouldn’t even be an issue and therefore we must take this step immediately if not sooner.
on December 4th, 2007 at 2:34 am
The US will never have 100% Border Security and check everyone entering the country. Hence,there will always be some illegal aliens coming her to have babies for the sole purpose of citizenship and being able to collect benefits on the child.
If a politician is not going to address anchor babies, then the rest gets to be mute. If the parents get to stay to take care of the baby, here we go again.
If the parents get any type of status because of the child, then Parkland Hospital in Dallas will continue to overflow with mothers having babies.