Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Citizen Children of Illegal Immigrants

This article from the Washington Times points to, but fails to develop further, a growing issue in the immigration realm, a growing population of children born to illegal immigrants in the U.S. Big deal you say--well it is, because these children born in the U.S. are by operation of where they are born, American citizens. That is the law.

This presents an amazing difficulty for us because by law and common sense, we can't deport citizens. If we deport their parents--the state will then have to provide care for these "deportation orphans." The story does point to what will happen in a few years. These kids will be able to petition the government to have their families, who currently have no legal status, granted status--possibly even citizenship.

This presents yet another alarming problem in the immigration policy of the Bush Administration. While the guest worker matter appears solid in many respects, what will we do with the guest worker who is pregnant or the husband of a pregnant woman who comes here to have the child. We now have a family that is all but guaranteed to stay here.

So what solutions present themselves to me. First, we could do nothing, which is probably what will happen since many people lack the gall and gumption to do something. Second, we can not treat teh children of illegal immigrants as citizens. Here is a primary difference between a child born to legal vs. illegal immigrants. I have no problem granting birthright citizenship to the child of legal immigrants. The parents of such a child may or may not avail themselves of their child's status, but that is beside the point, they are here legally and should have the benefit of hte protection of our laws.

On the other hand, illegal immigrants should not be afforded the protections of the laws they flagrantly disregard. A child born in teh United States to illegal immigrants should NOT, under any circumstances be granted birthright citizenship. To grant such a status encourages further illegal activity compounded by the subsequent petitions for the family for a legal status. Illegal immigrant children should be deported along with their parents.

Now I know that some people will read this and say, how cruel. You are a heartless cro-magnon with no soul. Perhaps, but I also believe that as a nation our biggest security threat is not terrorists from teh sky, but terrorists walking across our borders. Illegal immigration must be stopped and taking away the biggest incentive for immigrants to come here, namely the birth of the so-called "anchor" child, will help stem the flow and reduce the cost on me, the taxpayer.

So if that makes me cruel so be it, but it is my country and I say if you are here illegally you should be immediately deported. It is so easy to come to this country legally, and if you do so, I will be the first person in line to shake you hand, say congratulations and good luck in our country. Otherwise, stay the hell out!!!

'Anchors' in third of alien families

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I would first appreciate it if the author learned how to spell "the" consistently.

I would also like the author to do a little research before writing on a topic as if an expert. I have researched immigration extensively, and no, it is not "so easy" to come to this country legally; it is in fact nearly impossible unless a person already has family in the United States, and even in that case it can take many years due to the green card backlog.

However, the author brings me to my suggestion. The law must change to make it possible to immigrate legally. I'm not saying it should be easy to immigrate; certainly we should have thorough background checks on every applicant. However, there should be an reasonable, available route. If there were a way for more immigrants to come legally, then far fewer would come illegally.