The newly elected Republican majority in the House is looking to deny citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants once it takes the reins early next year in the new Congress.
A bill that would deny “birthright citizenship” to these children is expected to be introduced by the incoming chairman of the subcommittee that oversees immigration, Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa.
As previously reported in La Plaza, a Latino Republican group has called for GOP leadership not to appoint King (and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX)) to oversee immigration legislation. Critics have called such measures unconstitutional. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution stipulates that anyone born or naturalized in the United States is granted automatic citizenship.
“I don’t like it,” Chad Silva, statewide policy analyst for the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, said. “It’s been something that’s been a part of America for a very long time. … For us, it sort of flies in the face of what America is about.”
King, however, has said he believes current immigration law gives people an incentive to enter the country illegally and that it’s creating an “anchor baby industry.”
“Many of these illegal aliens are giving birth to children in the United States so that they can have uninhibited access to taxpayer-funded benefits and to citizenship for as many family members as possible,” King said.
DeeDee Blase, the founder of Somos Republicans, the group that is pushing for King not to be appointed to oversee immigration legislation, is against such a law.
“We find both this rhetoric and this unconstitutional conduct reprehensible, insulting and a poor reflection upon Republicans,” Blase, an Arizona Latina, said in a letter to House Republican leaders.
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