A group of lawmakers from 14 states is coming to together to work on legislation that would deny the children of undocumented immigrants U.S. citizenship.
The sponsor of Arizona’s anti-immigrant law, Republican State Sen. Russell Pearce, is part of the group and says a formal announcement of the effort will be made Tuesday.
“We’re taking a leadership role on things that need to be fixed in America. We can’t get Congress to do it,” Pearce said. “It’s a national work group so that we have model legislation that we know will be successful, that meets the constitutional criteria.”
The state legislators’ attack on the 14 Amendment, which grants automatic citizenship to all U.S.-born children, comes amid growing anti-Hispanic sentiment across the country.
La Plaza has reported on the growing support among Republicans to deny the US-born children of undocumented immigrants citizenship. Most recently, the author of SB 1070 and Republican candidate for secretary of state in Kansas, Kris Kris Kobach, said he would crusade for the end of “birthright citizenship.”
The founder of a national anti-immigrant group of state legislators, Pennsylvania state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R), says the 12 other states besides Arizona and Pennsylvania collaborating on the anti-immigrant effort are Alabama, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah.
“We’re going to address the issue of the unconstitutional declaration of citizenship to those born to non-citizens,” Pearce said. “It is a violation of the 14th Amendment.”
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