‘Birthright citizenship’ debate set to begin

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According to a survey last month by Rasmussen Reports, a nonpartisan public opinion research firm, 49 percent of Americans favor ending birthright citizenship, and 41 percent favor keeping it. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a leading proponent of tougher measures to stop illegal immigration, believes public opinion could shift further in favor of Deal’s measure.

“Any issue that has a ‘damn right’ response, you can go with,” Tancredo said. “You ask if we should stop illegal immigrants from coming onto this country and having a baby here who is an American citizen, and most people say, ‘Damn right.”’

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GOP measure faces obstacles
However, Tancredo acknowledged that Deal’s measure faces major obstacles. Though he believes the House GOP leadership will eventually allow the proposal to come to a vote, Tancredo said it could flounder in the Senate or draw a veto from President Bush, who has sought to steer a middle course on some immigration issues.

The best strategy, Tancredo suggested, might be to avoid presenting the measure as a separate, stand-alone bill and instead add it to a broader piece of legislation that the Senate could not disregard.

Tancredo, Deal and others have noted that the United States is among the relatively few wealthy nations that allow birthright citizenship.

However, Lucas Guttentag, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said some Western European nations with different policies have suffered problems.

“Look at Germany — the children of guest workers are not citizens,” he said. “That creates enormous social and racial tensions. That’s the opposite of where we want to go.”

Challenge to 14th Amendment ‘far-fetched’
Guttentag also said the federal courts would probably strike down any measure that challenged the 14th Amendment’s citizenship guarantees.

“It’s a far-fetched, fundamentally misguided and unconstitutional proposal,” he said. “It’s not the kind of proposal that gets taken seriously by those who actually want to grapple with immigration issues.”

Some critics of current policy refer to U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants as “anchor babies” because — when they reach adulthood — they can sponsor their parents for legal permanent residency. Immigrants-rights groups say the number of such cases is smaller than critics allege, but authoritative statistics are scarce.

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