Utah State Rep. Paul Ray said on Monday he will ask the state Legislature next year to call for a constitutional amendment to repeal giving automatic citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil.
Ray made the claim that children of illegal immigrants are a huge drain on taxpayer-funded services at a press conference at the Utah State Capitol. The Republican legislator lamented cutting services to the disabled community, “while being forced to fund welfare programs for those who are not here legally.”
“We have to take away incentives to come to the U.S. illegally,” Ray said. “It may not seem very compassionate. It may seem awfully hard-nosed. But at some point we need to draw a line in the sand and say illegal is illegal and we’re not going to fund it anymore.”
Latino leaders condemned the action by Ray and other anti-immigration legislation as acts of racism.
“I think it is just another act of racism and a waste of time,” Frank Cordova, president of Centro Civico Mexicano and a longtime activist and leader, said. “What good is a resolution in the Legislature when Congress has to act to change that…? They are just showing another side of their racist attitude. They should be focusing on issues like education and jobs.”
Last week Gov. Gary Herbert also said he would favor revisiting the 14th Amendment to repeal automatic birthright citizenship. Other Republican legislators in the state have called for passage of an anti-immigrant law similar to Arizona’s SB 1070.
“You have people that are coming over here just to have children born on our soil so that they can be able to use our system,” Ray said.
In fact, undocumented immigrants do not qualify for government services (except in some cases of an emergency delivery of a baby), only their US born children do. Critics say there is no validity to the claim that undocumented immigrants are coming to the US just to reap the advantages of the legal status of their children.
Cordova says many Latinos “view such resolutions as an attack on anyone who looks different.”
Bet you won’t be hearing about all this nonsense after November. This is all just a ploy to fire up some really conservative voters for the election…moving to the far right won’t help though…just ask JD Hayworth in Arizona…
Yeah I am all for it , if you will make it retro to 1776 ad , that way we ship out all those that were born after the constitution was made into law. As to deportation we will start with the immigrants that showed up for a visit into Utah and never left…