Subscribe to Topics
MINNEAPOLIS–
Heated debate on illegal immigration continued at the RNC’s platform drafting committee meetings today. An amendment was proposed to deny citizenship to children born to illegal immigrants in the United States.
Kendal Unruh, a delegate from Colorado proposed the amendment and she introduced herself by saying she was from staunch illegal immigrant foe and former presidential candidate, Tom Tancredo’s district. She said that illegal immigration is the “number one issue” to the people in Colorado she represents and that the problem “breaks the back” of the health care system in her state.
Fierce debate broke out among the delegates when many saw this as unconstitutional and would mean changing the 14th amendment of the constitution, which states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States. . .are citizens of the United States.” Charles Mifsud, a delegate from Ohio said he was in favor of a crackdown of illegal immigration, but opposed the amendment because “anchor babies” represent the “symptom not the problem,” which he sees as securing the border. The term anchor baby is a controversial expression that refers to illegal immigrants who give birth to babies in the United States and are then “anchored” to this country.
In a more colorful moment of the proceedings, Mississippi Governor and committee member Haley Barbour pointed out that John McCain does not support denying children born in this country citizenship and that he came here to elect John McCain president, “I want to give him a platform he can run on. I don’t want to stick my finger in his eye.”
In response, Sandra McDade from Louisiana said she was not trying to stick her finger in John McCain’s eye, but was “aiming for a little higher” and then tapped her head insisting that by adopting this amendment they would be sending a strong message to their candidate. She called on her fellow delegates to approve the amendment, “We don’t have to be politically correct. We are Republicans!”
Other delegates expressed concern they would have to bring their passport or dig up their birth certificates before going to the hospital to give birth.
David Chung, a delegate from Iowa adamantly supported the amendment saying that the very act of crossing the border illegally makes illegal immigrants “invaders” and their children should not be afforded the rights of citizenship.
After the heated debate, the amendment failed, but the topic came up later when the question of counting illegal immigrants in the census came up.
Kris Kobach, a delegate from Kansas proposed an amendment that would eliminate the counting of illegal immigrants in the 2010 census. The delegates were split almost entirely in half with many delegates supporting only counting legal residents in the census, but the other half were concerned that by only counting legal immigrants that local governments and health care and education services in the country would be totally overwhelmed. Many of these services rely on census data to function and the amendment ended up failing.
