Now, sensing the mood of many Americans across the country, and with mid-term elections in November, several Republicans have begun openly talking about new legislation to specify who is covered by the 14th Amendment.
At issue is what is being termed: “Baby tourists.”
The US Constitution grants American citizenship to anyone born on US soil.
As the law now stands, pregnant women — so-called “baby tourists” — can travel to the US to give birth and then return home with their children, who would remain US citizens.
Conservatives say many illegal aliens are taking advantage of the amendment, and that it’s become a real industry here in the US, which leads to a costly problem for the US government.
The battle against so called “Baby tourists” got a new supporter after Sen. Lindsey Graham, R - South Carolina, appeared on Fox News last week, and advocated to change the amendment.
“Birthright citizenship, I think, is a mistake. ... People come here to have babies. They come here to drop a child. It’s called ‘drop and leave.’ To have a child in America, they cross the border, they go to the emergency room, have a child and that child’s automatically an American citizen,” said Graham.
“That shouldn’t be the case. That attracts people here for all the wrong reasons,” he said.
The concern is these infants will then sponsor their families for legal residency — albeit 21 years later. The questions most Americans want to know is not whether there really is an industry of travel agencies and hotel chains catering to “baby tourists” — but just how large it is.
The problem, experts say, is that it is often difficult to know who are “baby tourists,” as some are foreigners on vacation in the US and others are students at US colleges and universities.
Even more problematic is the fact that the government does not track the reasons non-resident mothers are in the United States at the time of the birth or their citizenship, meaning births to illegal immigrants who live in the United States are counted in the overall total.
Critics say that in a given year, it’s estimated that as many as 300,000 “baby tourists” are born in the US. They say there is a growing trend from China to get tourist and other temporary visas for women in later term pregnancies and then fly them to America so they can give birth here.
They also point to the border states of California and Arizona, and say they are going broke largely due to the large populations of illegal immigrants.
The federal government mandates that financial and other support be provided, but the states are left on their own to fund the programs.
Republican Sen. John Kyl, R-Arizona, also has said that simple birthright should not be the standard for US citizenship. That only those children born of parents whom are US citizens or legal immigrants already in the citizenship process should be granted such status. Some Republicans are even talking about passing legislation to make illegal immigrants pay for the public services they use, such as public schools.
This new debate on amending the 14th Amendment over anchor babies is caused an expected reaction from the far-left and pro-illegal-immigrant groups who oppose it. Some liberals say the move by Republicans is one to bring back slavery. Conservatives say it is to stop the slavery imposed upon the US taxpayers who are forced to fund criminals’ intent on cheating the system. Meanwhile, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Illinois, recently joined the growing list of lawmakers who said they want Congressional hearings on the 14th Amendment.
But Gutierrez, an outspoken supporter of immigrants’ rights, has a different motivation for supporting hearings: he thinks Republicans are posturing and wants Congressional leaders to “call their bluff.”