Immigration Reform

Now that President Obama has passed his healthcare agenda, he will be moving on to immigration reform.  On March 4th, the Los Angeles Times reported that the President had met with Democrat Charles E. Schumer of New York and Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina who had been working on the bill.  Well, that was then, and this is now.

On March 25th, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room reported that Senator Graham has stated that the methods used by the Democrats in securing the passage of the healthcare bill had 'poisoned the well' and that the chances of getting a bipartisan bill passed after the passage of healthcare were small.

Meanwhile, George Will at the Washington Post Sunday, posted an idea that he felt might help inject some common sense into the immigration debate.  Mr. Will cites the current interpretation of the 14th Amendment as one of the sources of our immigration problem.  He suggests that ending the practice of "birthright citizenship" might slow down the number of illegal aliens who come to America.

Under present law, if a pregnant woman illegally crosses the border into the United States and makes her way to an American hospital to have her child, the child is born as a United States citizen.   Mr. Will points out that the Civil Rights Act of 1866 states that "All persons born in the United States, and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States." (his emphasis).

The article concludes:

"Congress has heard testimony estimating that more than two-thirds of all births in Los Angeles public hospitals, and more than half of all births in that city, and nearly 10 percent of all births in the nation in recent years, have been to mothers who are here illegally. Graglia seems to establish that there is no constitutional impediment to Congress ending the granting of birthright citizenship to those whose presence here is "not only without the government's consent but in violation of its law.""

I doubt that there is another country in the world where if you are in the country illegally and have a child, that child is a citizen of that country entitled to all benefits.  Closing this loophole would help discourage people who come here illegally and might allow us to adjust our immigration laws in order to attract citizens who want to assimilate into this country.  As a side note, one of the most disturbing things to me about the demonstrations we have seen by illegal immigrants who want to become Americans is the fact that they are hoisting the Mexican flag as they demonstrate.  That makes no sense.  If you want to be here, please become a loyal American; if your loyalty is to Mexico, please come visit us, then go home.