News of initiatives being taken to introduce immigration reforms is becoming increasingly alarming to the migrant community in South Florida, and across the United States.

Recent reports are that a significant number of Republicans are involved in the attempt to flout the Constitution’s 14th amendment by denying the birthright of people born in America to be citizens. If these Republicans get their way, the US-born children of illegal immigrants would be denied citizenship. The strange reasoning is that such children are in effect anchors to their parents’ gaining legal status upon the children reaching age 21.

This proposal is threatening to create strife and confusion in efforts being made by President Bush and others to create a semblance of balance in reforming what is now becoming a very high-profile national issue. Many in Congress and their respective sectors of support want favorable reforms to immigration to assure that businesses have a source of cheap labor, normally obtained from immigrants. But, there are others, much more conservative who are willing to throw the immigrant out with the sea water, by eliminating illegal immigrants from the society entirely.

The conservatives in seeking for immigration reform, apart from wanting to rob some citizens of their birthright, also want to make illegal presence in the United States a crime; create mandatory minimum sentences for aliens convicted of reentry into the U.S. after being removed, and make abuse of Social Security numbers and cards a deportable offense. Some even want to build a wall along the US/Mexico border to stem the inflow of Mexicans into this country. 

News of initiatives being taken to introduce immigration reforms is becoming increasingly alarming to the migrant community in South Florida, and across the United States.

Recent reports are that a significant number of Republicans are involved in the attempt to flout the Constitution’s 14th amendment by denying the birthright of people born in America to be citizens. If these Republicans get their way, the US-born children of illegal immigrants would be denied citizenship. The strange reasoning is that such children are in effect anchors to their parents’ gaining legal status upon the children reaching age 21.

This proposal is threatening to create strife and confusion in efforts being made by President Bush and others to create a semblance of balance in reforming what is now becoming a very high-profile national issue. Many in Congress and their respective sectors of support want favorable reforms to immigration to assure that businesses have a source of cheap labor, normally obtained from immigrants. But, there are others, much more conservative who are willing to throw the immigrant out with the sea water, by eliminating illegal immigrants from the society entirely.

The conservatives in seeking for immigration reform, apart from wanting to rob some citizens of their birthright, also want to make illegal presence in the United States a crime; create mandatory minimum sentences for aliens convicted of reentry into the U.S. after being removed, and make abuse of Social Security numbers and cards a deportable offense. Some even want to build a wall along the US/Mexico border to stem the inflow of Mexicans into this country.

However, it is the proposal to deny the children of illegal immigrants their birthright that is jost alarming. One of the leading Republicans in favor of this proposal is Rep. Tom Tancredo, of Colorado, who in arguing against the claims that such a proposal would be unconstitutional, claimed that the drafters of the 14th amendment did not intend citizenship to apply to the children of illegal immigrants. He is also claiming that there is sound momentum for the proposal, which has 77 co-sponsors in the House.

Even of more concern is the results of a recent national poll conducted my the nonpartisan Rasmussen Reports which indicated that 49 percent were in favor of denying citizenship to US-born children of illegal immigrants. This is a significant finding especially in a proposal that is yet to take on open public debate.