by Michael Marcell & Luis Carlos López
A study released Aug. 11 by the Pew Hispanic Research Center shows that 340,000 of 4.3 million (8 percent) babies born in the United States in 2008 were the progeny of undocumented immigrants — with most coming from Hispanic parents.
Pew found that nearly four in five of the 5.1 million children under age 18 of unauthorized immigrants were born in this country and therefore U.S. citizens.
“Overall, Hispanics who live in the U.S. have higher rates of fertility than do whites, blacks or Asians,” the Pew said. “Among Hispanics, the foreign born have higher rates of fertility than the native born.”
The study comes as some senators are making strides on Capitol Hill to redefine what it takes to be a U.S. citizen.
Currently, section one of the 14th amendment of the Constitution states: “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.”
Some have proposed changing the amendment to exclude U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants from being considered citizens to help resolve the illegal immigration problem. Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) held hearings Aug. 3 to discuss such possibility.
Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop said addressing the issue of birthright citizenship would move comprehensive immigration reform legislation forward because it would be one method of preventing more undocumented immigrants from entering this country.
President Reagan addressed the first wave in 1986 when he signed an amnesty bill that provided a path to citizenship for 2.7 million persons.
Bishop told Hispanic Link Aug. 6, “We are now in the second wave of illegal immigrants…Senator Graham is committed that we don’t have a third wave.
Bishop stressed Graham’s position that changes should not jeopardize the status of people who have already been granted birthright citizenship .
Janet Murguía, president of the National Council of La Raza, said in a statement that Graham and McCain, once leading Senate advocates for comprehensive immigration reform, in joining with Senate Republican leaders Mitch McConnell and Jon Kyl in support of repealing birthright citizenship, have led her to “conclude that, with some exceptions, the Grand Old Party has either taken leave of its senses or of its principles.”
Elizabeth Weidruff, chief counsel for the ConstitutionalAccountability Center, said, “The text and history of the 14th Amendment clearly include children of non-citizens or undocumented immigrants in the guarantee of citizenship for those born on U.S. soil.”
Others are echoing Graham’s call to action and have a different interpretation of the 14th Amendment.
Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said that being a U.S. citizen implies a deeper connection to one’s nation that someone who comes to the U.S. for opportunistic reasons cannot understand.
“The amendment says ‘all persons born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof’, are citizens,” He said. “The issue is: what does it mean to be in the jurisdiction of the United States? Does it mean, simply, that you’re here and you have to stop at the red lights like the rest of us, or is their some deeper meaning to the concept of what it means to be in the jurisdiction of the United States?” Hispanic Link.
