Anchor Babies: No Parents Allowed

Having grown up in a border town, the term “anchor baby” was drilled into my mind at a young age, and I was taught that these children and their families were just taking advantage of the country and were the cause to problems X, Y, and Z. Anchor babies—known by many as the spawn of illegal immigrants who come over to pop out kids in America and ruin the country—are actually quite legal.

Just a few months ago after reading a column on Arizona’s attack on anchor babies written by Steven Montalvo, I asked myself, “Has anyone read the stinking Constitution lately?”

As a staunch Republican, the Constitution is basically my second Bible, and anyone that’s taken a basic US government or history course should remember a little thing called the 14th Amendment when referring to anchor babies.

The 14th Amendment 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. 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.

In other words, if they were birthed on American soil, they’re definitely American. No if, ands, or buts about it. Sure, politicians can debate that the framers of the Constitution meant otherwise, but that's besides the point. Defining a citizen is not the point of this article.

Since I’m a staunch Republican, you should already know my argument won’t stop here.

The 14th Amendment never grants citizenship to the parents of said anchor baby.

The parents of the anchor babies are the problem here, not the anchor babies themselves.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, 8-percent of the newborn population in the US is composed of children born to unauthorized illegal parents, as well as 7-percent of the population under the age of 18.

How many of these 5-year olds do you think live on their own? Not many, I’m willing to bet. Go ahead and do the math; that’s a lot of parents without papers.

While parents of these anchor babies really don’t have any advantage when applying for citizenship, the least they can do for their children is apply for a green card or move the family back to their native country instead of one day maybe getting caught and shipped off sans baby. And, as always, being in the country illegally is illegal, so staying would be bad.

So anchor babies, your parents don’t have to go home, but they can’t stay here.