States seek to deny birthright citizenship to children of illegal immigrants

By Jeremy Redmon

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Lawmakers from Georgia and several other states announced legislation Wednesday aimed at denying birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants.

Calling themselves Legislators for Legal Immigration, they are targeting the 14th Amendment, which automatically grants U.S. citizenship to babies born on U.S. soil even if their parents are here illegally. The lawmakers disagree with that interpretation, and they are attempting to force the issue into the courts for a decision.

Under one of the measures the lawmakers announced Wednesday in Washington, the states would attempt to define a state citizen as a child of at least one parent “who owes no allegiance to any foreign sovereignty, or a child without citizenship or nationality in any foreign country.” Children born here to illegal immigrants would not meet that definition, the lawmakers said.

The legislators also proposed that the states enter into a compact and seek congressional approval to issue a different form of a birth certificate that would identify children born in the United States to illegal immigrants. Under that proposal, such children could then be considered ineligible for certain benefits and face deportation.

A newly formed coalition of civil rights organizations and advocates for immigrants called Americans for Constitutional Citizenship condemned the proposals shortly after they were announced, calling them unconstitutional, un-American and divisive.

Lawmakers in Georgia and other states complain illegal immigrants are committing crimes in their communities and competing for public benefits and jobs.

Georgia state Sen. Jack Murphy, R-Cumming, spoke Wednesday at the news conference in Washington, but he said he does not plan to introduce the legislation in Georgia.

Murphy, however, predicted another state legislator will sponsor a similar bill in the General Assembly this year, though he declined to name that person.

"I feel that the birthright citizenship issue must not be taken lightly and loopholes that allow for individuals to unlawfully remain in our country and take advantage of valuable taxpayer resources must be closed,” said Murphy, a co-chairman of a special study committee on immigration in Georgia. “Members of our committee must begin to look at legislation that will close these loopholes in Georgia and protect our citizens.”

Lawmakers from Arizona, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and South Carolina were also present for Wednesday’s announcement at the National Press Club.

Among the Americans for Constitutional Citizenship's members are the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

“For the first time since the end of the Civil War,” Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said in a news conference call Wednesday, “these legislators want to pass state laws that would create two tiers of citizens, a modern-day caste system with potentially millions of naturally born Americans being treated as somehow less than entitled to the equal protection of the laws that our nation has struggled so hard to guarantee.”

The founder of Lawmakers for Legal Immigration, Republican Pennsylvania state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, said his goal is to force the courts to rule on the intent of the 14th Amendment.

Paul Bender, who teaches constitutional law at Arizona State University, said Metcalfe’s proposals are unconstitutional.

“This would diminish citizenship lower than what the 14th Amendment defines,” Bender said, “and they can’t do that.”