Justice Brennan's Footnote Gave Us Anchor Babies

In a characteristically devastating column (printed out below) this week, Ann Coulter broke down why there is no need to re-work the 14th Amendment (which granted birthright citizenship to freed slaves) in order to stop illegal immigrants from importing their entire extended families into our welfare system by breaking into our country just long enough to have babies.

From "Justice Brennan's footnote gave us anchor babies":

The drafters of the 14th amendment had no intention of conferring citizenship on the children of aliens who happened to be born in the U.S. (For my younger readers, back in those days, people cleaned their own houses and raised their own kids.)

...The very author of the citizenship clause, Sen. Jacob Howard of Michigan, expressly said: "This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers."

In the 1884 case Elk v. Wilkins, the Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment did not even confer citizenship on Indians -- because they were subject to tribal jurisdiction, not U.S. jurisdiction.

Birthright citizenship for foreigners is undeniably not what was intended.

All we have to do to stop overwhelming border state hospitals, bankrupting state and local governments and devastating our already exhausted welfare system is to stop pretending that illegal immigrants are "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States, which is what the 14th Amendment requires for birthright citizenship.

These people are subject to the jurisdictions of foreign governments, so them having babies here in no way grants them or their children any rights to our country under the Constitution.

As with so many other liberal policy disasters this country is being bombarded with, this crisis began with tyrannical "make up whatever you feel like" leftist judges abandoning the Constitution, usurping their authority and arbitrarily inventing random rights for people out of thin air.

Justice Brennan’s Footnote Gave Us Anchor Babies

by  Ann Coulter -  08/04/2010

Democrats act as if the right to run across the border when you're 8 1/2 months pregnant, give birth in a U.S. hospital and then immediately start collecting welfare was exactly what our forebears had in mind, a sacred constitutional right, as old as the 14th Amendment itself.

The louder liberals talk about some ancient constitutional right, the surer you should be that it was invented in the last few decades.

In fact, this alleged right derives only from a footnote slyly slipped into a Supreme Court opinion by Justice Brennan in 1982. You might say it snuck in when no one was looking, and now we have to let it stay.

The 14th Amendment was added after the Civil War in order to overrule the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision, which had held that black slaves were not citizens of the United States. The precise purpose of the amendment was to stop sleazy Southern states from denying citizenship rights to newly freed slaves -- many of whom had roots in this country longer than a lot of white people.

The amendment guaranteed that freed slaves would have all the privileges of citizenship by providing: "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."

(The s0-called anchor baby provision was written to guarantee citizenship for disenfranchised native Americans and the children of slaves… not for the children who come here to live illegally or many cases just to have their children.)

The drafters of the 14th amendment had no intention of conferring citizenship on the children of aliens who happened to be born in the U.S. (For my younger readers, back in those days, people cleaned their own houses and raised their own kids.)

Inasmuch as America was not the massive welfare state operating as a magnet for malingerers, frauds and cheats that it is today, it's amazing the drafters even considered the amendment's effect on the children of aliens.

But they did.

The very author of the citizenship clause, Sen. Jacob Howard of Michigan, expressly said: "This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers."
In the 1884 case Elk v. Wilkins, the Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment did not even confer citizenship on Indians -- because they were subject to tribal jurisdiction, not U.S. jurisdiction.

For a hundred years, that was how it stood, with only one case adding the caveat that children born to LEGAL permanent residents of the U.S., gainfully employed, and who were not employed by a foreign government would also be deemed citizens under the 14th Amendment. (United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 1898.)

And then, out of the blue in 1982, Justice Brennan slipped a footnote into his 5-4 opinion in Plyler v. Doe, asserting that "no plausible distinction with respect to Fourteenth Amendment 'jurisdiction' can be drawn between resident aliens whose entry into the United States was lawful, and resident aliens whose entry was unlawful." (Other than the part about one being lawful and the other not.)

Brennan's authority for this lunatic statement was that it appeared in a 1912 book written by Clement L. Bouve. (Yes, THE Clement L. Bouve -- the one you've heard so much about over the years.) Bouve was not a senator, not an elected official, certainly not a judge -- just some guy who wrote a book.

So on one hand we have the history, the objective, the author's intent and 100 years of history of the 14th Amendment, which says that the 14th Amendment does not confer citizenship on children born to illegal immigrants.

On the other hand, we have a random outburst by some guy named Clement -- who, I'm guessing, was too cheap to hire an American housekeeper.

Any half-wit, including Clement L. Bouve, could conjure up a raft of such "plausible distinction(s)" before breakfast. Among them: Legal immigrants have been checked for subversive ties, contagious diseases, and have some qualification to be here other than "lives within walking distance."

But most important, Americans have a right to decide, as the people of other countries do, who becomes a citizen.
Combine Justice Brennan's footnote with America's ludicrously generous welfare policies, and you end up with a bankrupt country.

Consider the story of one family of illegal immigrants described in the Spring 2005 Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons:
"Cristobal Silverio came illegally from Oxtotilan, Mexico, in 1997 and brought his wife Felipa, plus three children aged 19, 12 and 8. Felipa ... gave birth to a new daughter, her anchor baby, named Flor. Flor was premature, spent three months in the neonatal incubator, and cost San Joaquin Hospital more than $300,000. Meanwhile, (Felipa's 19-year-old daughter) Lourdes plus her illegal alien husband produced their own anchor baby, Esmeralda. Grandma Felipa created a second anchor baby, Cristian. ... The two Silverio anchor babies generate $1,000 per month in public welfare funding. Flor gets $600 per month for asthma. Healthy Cristian gets $400. Cristobal and Felipa last year earned $18,000 picking fruit. Flor and Cristian were paid $12,000 for being anchor babies."

In the Silverios' munificent new hometown of Stockton, Calif., 70 percent of the 2,300 babies born in 2003 in the San Joaquin General Hospital were anchor babies. As of this month, Stockton is $23 million in the hole.

It's bad enough to be governed by 5-4 decisions written by liberal judicial activists. In the case of "anchor babies," America is being governed by Brennan's 1982 footnote.

Time for us rid ourselves of laws and provisions written and passed by Progressive lunatics!

Graham Eyes ‘Birthright Citizenship’  “For many pregnant Chinese, a U.S. passport for baby remains a plan

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Amnesty Would Have a Present Cost of $1 Trillion

In 2007, the Heritage Foundation issued two studies, one on the cost of low-skilled immigration and one on the cost of amnesty. The study on the cost of low-skilled immigration noted that low-skilled immigrants do work hard: “It is important to note, these families are rarely idle; they consistently work and pay taxes. However, the taxes they pay are seldom, if ever, sufficient to cover the cost of the government benefits they receive. In consequence, these households must be continually subsidized by other taxpayers.” The Heritage study concluded that low-skilled immigrant households will cost native born U.S. taxpayers $89.1 billion per year over each of the next 30 years.

The Heritage report estimated that illegal residents comprise 41 percent of low-skilled immigrant households.¹ Simple multiplication indicates that illegal-immigrant households cost the U.S. taxpayer $36.5 billion each year. Over 30 years, that works out to $1.1 trillion in costs. Using a financial calculator, we assumed a discount rate of 5 percent, and computed the net present value of a cost stream of $36.5 over the next 30 years to be $589 billion.

Cost to Taxpayer for Government Benefits to Illegal Aliens:

Years
Cost Each Year
Total Cost
Present Cost @ 5% discount rate

2007-2037
$36.5 billion
$1.1 trillion
$589 billion

2038-2056
$144.5 billion
$2.6 trillion
$410 billion

$999 billion

A second report was issued by the Heritage Foundation a few weeks after the report discussed above. This report discussed the costs allowing current illegal aliens to become United States citizens. They will become eligible for the full array of welfare and medical benefits offered by state and federal governments. This study concluded that the $36.5 billion per year figure is valid for the next 30 years. The average age of an illegal alien is early 30s. Beginning 30 years from now, the current illegal alien population will retire. The problem is that low-skilled illegal aliens do not earn enough money to support their families, send remittances back to their homelands, and save adequate money for retirement. The U.S. taxpayer will be stuck supporting most illegal aliens in retirement. And each retired illegal alien is projected to cost the U.S. taxpayer $17,000 per year.

The Heritage report continues, that of the 10 million retired illegal aliens, some 8.5 million will live to the retirement age of 67 years old. At that time, the statistically normal lifespan is an additional 18 years. $17,000 per year for 18 years is $306,000. That is the cost of supporting one amnestied illegal alien through retirement. Multiplied by 8.5 million people, and that comes to the astounding figure of $2.6 trillion.² Using a financial calculator, we assumed a discount rate of 5 percent and computed the net present value of a cost stream of $144.5 billion per year for 18 years from the years 2039-2057. The net present cost was given as $410 billion.

Attrition Through Enforcement Would Have a Present Cost of as Little at $13.5 Billion

H.R. 4437, The “Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005,” had Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner as its original sponsor. This bill had several features to combat illegal immigration including:

• mandatory E-Verify 6 years from date of enactment
• end the “catch-and-release” policy for all persons apprehended at border
• require DHS to reimburse counties within 25 miles of the border for the costs relating to illegal aliens
• removal orders would become final more quickly and readily
• facilitate removal of aliens who reenter the country illegally after having been deported
• mandatory minimum prison sentences for offenses related to illegal entry into the United States
• additional port-of-entry inspectors and canine detection teams

This was the bill to which Sensenbrenner offered an amendment to reduce the penalty for illegal presence (aimed at visa overstayers) from a felony to a misdemeanor (Amendment 656, Roll Call Vote 655).³ However, all but 8 Democrats voted against the amendment (in other words, they voted for upgrading illegal presence to a felony) because they wanted to use the provision as a rallying point from which to stir up opposition to the bill.

The passage of this bill attracted a firestorm of opposition from the open borders lobby, including illegal alien demonstrations in a number of cities on May 1, 2006.

The illegal alien lobby was opposed to this bill because it would have been effective. This is why we can safely conclude that effective attrition through enforcement would cost as little as $13.5 billion.⁴

Strong Attrition Through Enforcement Would Have a Present Cost of $177 Billion

The SAVE Act (Secure America Through Verification and Enforcement) Act was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on November 6, 2007. It never made it to a vote because the House leadership would not allow it. Among the key provisions of the bill were:

• mandatory E-Verify 4 years from the date of enactment;
• increased employer sanctions for those knowingly employing illegal aliens;
• a "National Birth and Death Registration System" to reduce stolen identities;
• 140 additional Criminal Alien Program (CAP) officers to identify and remove criminal aliens detained in federal, state and local facilities;
• training at least 250 state and local law enforcement officers on how to perform federal immigration enforcement procedures;
• 8,000 additional beds for illegal aliens detained by immigration officials;
• 13 additional federal district judges in border states to increase the flow of deportations, including 4 for the District of Arizona and 5 for the Southern District of California;

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill would cost $40.7 billion over the 10 years between 2009-2018.⁵

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¹Robert E. Rector and Christine Kim, The Fiscal Cost of Low-Skill Immigrants to the U.S. Taxpayer, Special Report #14, May 22, 2007,The Heritage Foundation.

²Robert E. Rector, Amnesty Will Cost U.S. Taxpayers At Least $2.6 Trillion, Web Memo #1490, June 6, 2007, The Heritage Foundation.

³See The Congressional Record – House – December 16, 2005, H11951-11953.

⁴The CBO report can be found by searching www.cbo.gov for H.R. 4437.

⁵The CBO report can be found by searching www.cbo.gov for H.R. 4088.

Source:  NumbersUSA

Options and Solutions to America’s Immigration Problem

There are answers to fix our immigration situation and many are already on our books… It is just a matter of finding more people like Jan Brewer, Joe Arpaio, Ken Cuccinelli, Glenn Beck, Judge Andrew Napolitano, Sarah Palin, the Minutemen, Jim DeMint, Michelle Bachmann, Tea Party Members, 9/12’ers, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Monica Crowley, Rush… (and the list goes), plus a whole lot more average Americans… standing up and demanding the stop of the insanity and to insist on the rights and will of the American People be done and upheld!

SECURE THE BORDERS USING WHATEVER MEANS NECESSARY (FENCES, ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE, ARMED TROOPS ETC) and TEMPORARILY STOP ALL IMMIGRATION, LEGAL AND OTHERWISE UNTIL WE DO!!

• STOP SANCTUARY CITIES FROM OPERATING!

• PROSECUTE ANYONE WHO HIRES ILLEGALS TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW!

• DEPORT ALL ILLEGAL CRIMINALS IMMEDIATELY, UNLESS THEY ARE SERVING MAXIMUM SECURITY TYPE OFFENCES AND ARE LOCKED UP. DEPORT THEM IF THEY ARE EVER ELIGIBLE TO BE RELEASED!

• STOP THE MISINTERPRETATION OF THE ANCHOR BABY AMENDMENT AND AMEND ‘THE FOOTNOTE’! MAKE IT RETROACTIVE… FOR AT LEAST 5-YEARS

• REDUCE MINIMUM WAGE TO HELP SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS CREATE JOBS GOOD FOR SUPPLEMENTING STUDENTS, THE ELDERLY AND YOUNG PEOPLE, BUT NOT ENOUGH TO SUPPORT ILLEGAL WORKERS… MANY WILL GO HOME ON THEIR OWN

• INSTEAD OF LEGALLIZING MARIJUANA ALL OVER THE COUNTRY, SO THE PROGRESSIVES CAN DUMB US ALL DOWN FURTHER AND MAKE EVERYONE EVEN MORE DOCILE, WE SHOULD BE TIGHTENING THE RULES, ESPEICALLY IN BORDER STATES AND PROSECUTING EVERYONE:  DEALERS, MULES, SUPPLIERS AND USES! (THIS ENTIRE LEGALIZATION MOVEMENT AT THIS TIME IS NOT JUST A COINCIDENCE!)  AND GET THE FLOURIDE THAT RENDERS PEOPLE DOCILE OUT OF THE WATER!

Then Once we confirm that all the borders, ports and airports are secured… for a sustainable amount of time… DOUBLE THE ARMED SECURITY FORCES AND SURVEILLANCE AT THE BORDER.

• WE BEGIN TO LOOK AT THE OPTIONS OF WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH THOSE ALREADY HERE.  REALISTICALLY THERE ARE ONLY SO MANY OPTIONS

1. DEPORT EVERYONE THAT CAME HERE ILLEGALLY

2. ALLOW THOSE TAHT ARE NOT CRIMINALS TO REMAIN, BUT MAKE IT DIFFICULT FOR THEM TO WORK, AND CUT ANY BENEFITS WHICH WOULD INCLUDE NO OPTION OF BECOMING A CITIZEN UNLESS THEY RETURN HOME AND THEN APPLY LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE.

3. REMAIN IDIOTS AND JUST IGNORE THE SITUATION AND DO NOTHING FOR OR AGAINST THOSE WHO ARE ALREADY HERE… BUT NO CITIZENSHIP.

4. GIVE EVERYONE AMNESTY, WHICH IS WHAT THE PROGRESSIVES WANT TO DO… AND DON’T EVEN HAVE THE GUTS TO SAY IT (SEE:  Amnesty Memo, WHERE THEY PLAN TO BYPASS EVERYONE, BUT DO WAHT THEY WANT.)

5. DEVELOP A PACKAGE: DEPORT EVERY ILLEGAL WHO HAS ANY TYPE OF CRIMINAL RECORD.  STOP THE ANCHOR BABY POLICY. MAKE THE BORDER, PORT AND AIRPORT SECURITY FORCES PERMANENT.  AND ALLOW THE REST TO STAY, BUT EVERYONE MUST REGISTER WITHIN 30-DAYS TO QUALIFY FOR A SLOW PATH TO CITIZENSHIP; ADD ADDITIONAL TIME TO THE WAIT TO TAKE THE TEST AND START THE TIME OVER FROM WHEN THEY GET THEIR NEW GREEN CARD.  AND HERE IS THE PIVOTAL PART:  GET AN HONEST COUNT…. 20 MILLION+.  FIND OUT WHERE THEY ARE FROM, FROM REGISTRATION.  AND CONTINUE THE BLOCK ON ALL FURTHER IMMIGRATION UNTIL WE HAVE REACHED THE PRESENT QUOTAS FROM IMMIGRANTS FROM EACH COUNTRY INVOLVED.

EXAMPLE BY SCALE:

If Country A has a present quota of 10 ‘legal’ aliens a year to come into the United States and they have 100 illegal aliens already here, we allow the 100 to stay, but Country A gets no additional slots for legal immigration for 10-years (or until their illegals are compensated for) plus an additional penalty of 1 to 5 years… for not helping to monitor their own citizens and so on down the line for all countries who have illegal aliens in the United States… period.

As Charles Krauthammer said, we have always opened our doors to immigration, but we are allowed as a nation to reduce, stop and choose who comes into our nation and from where.

Republican Candidate for Governor of California , Meg Whitman, says today,  “No amnesty, no path to citizenship - no illegals will get citizenship no way no how!!”  And opinion agreed with by most Americans and legal aliens.