No More Anchor Babies!

A misinterpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is responsible for the concept now commonly referred to as “anchor babies”. The amendment was one of the solutions enacted by Congress to help heal the post-Civil War United States. It was the Congressional response to the case of U.S Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford of 1857 aka the Dred Scott Decision, which said that those of African descent could never attain U.S. citizenship. The Amendment granted citizenship to blacks and later became the basis for the U.S. Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education.

Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1. “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.”

Immigration isn’t mentioned because when the amendment was proposed in 1866 and finally ratified in 1868 it was intended to address the issue of citizenship for former slaves. Slaves didn’t voluntarily show up on our shores. They were forcibly brought here in chains from other countries against their will. This is the exact opposite of today’s illegal immigrant. Today’s illegal immigrant deliberately avoids our immigration laws to enter our country. That places the illegal immigrant in our country illegally and at odds with our law-abiding society.

In 1898 the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case of United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which addressed the issue of a U.S. born child of foreigners legally residing in the U.S. The court determined that under such circumstances the child was entitled to U.S. citizenship. Illegal immigration wasn’t at issue in this case.

In 1982 the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case of Plyler v. Doe. This case was decided by a 5-4 vote. It addressed the issue of foreign born parents and children who enter our country illegally. The city of Brownsville, Texas was denying public education to foeriegn born children of illegal immigrants. The Supreme Court determined that the illegal immigrant children were “within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” of Texas and therefore Texas could not deny the children the right of an education. This particluar case is only signiifcant to anchor babies in that there is a small footnote in the decision that states that no plausible distinction regarding jurisdiction can be drawn between legal or illegal resident aliens. This tiny footnote implies that U.S. born children of illegal immigrants are entitled to U.S. citizenship. There is no case law or precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court addressing the specific issue of a U.S. born child of illegal immigrants.

By studying the history of the Fourteenth Amendment it is obvious that it was never intended to protect pregnant mothers sneaking across our borders illegally in the dark of night with the intent of giving birth in our country only to have that child turned into an excuse to circumvent our immigration laws. The Fourteenth Amendment was not intended to reward law-breakers for their criminal behavior. The Fourteenth Amendment is nearly 150 years old. The former slaves it was intended to protect have since passed away. Its time to rescind this amendment just like with prohibition and eliminate the confusion it causes in today’s world. The bottom line is that there is no legal basis for the concept known as “anchor babies” or for an automatic award of citizenship for a child born to illegal immigrants in our country.