Wingnut Congressman Brian Bilbray's Ignorance about the Constitution and Citizenship Is Shocking

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted July 8, 2009.

Back to Dvorak:

When you start to think about the ‘citizenship requirements’ it makes sense that one must inherit it from their parents. According to Bilbray, “You can’t get a million dollars from your parents if they don’t have it. If your parents have nothing you inherit nothing.”

This is one of those arguments that sounds like common sense for those with a profound ignorance of the law. The rest of us understand -- I hope -- that inheritance and property rights are governed by a patchwork of state laws and, on the federal level, the United States Civil Code and have nothing in the world to do with citizenship as it's spelled out in the United States Constitution.

There is often a lot of talk about the right to citizenship through the 14th Amendment. This was federalized (sic) in the 1860’s for the West African Slaves (sic). Bilbray states the slaves could be forced (sic) into the military and could be tried for treason, therefore their children were eligible to become citizens.

Nope. Congress passed the 14th Amendment, it was duly ratified by the states and therefore the children of slaves were eligible to become citizens.

Bilbray also points out that this Anchor Baby portion is a basic rule. “Congressman Deal of Georgia added a birthright component to Georgia’s immigration bill. A parent has to be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident or you don’t get “Anchor Baby” citizenship.”

Here is an example of a right-wing lawmaker with a nutty idea citing another right-wing lawmaker with an equally nutty idea as proof that "this anchor baby portion is a basic rule."

Deal's legislation went nowhere, and Deal himself has said, "this will never get a hearing and will never be an issue that we get a chance to vote on."

And, of course, the State of Georgia can't grant or withhold citizenship -- it can only pass laws restricting some state-administered benefits to the children of undocumented immigrants.

The 2010 ballet (sic) initiative is a great opportunity for Californians to take back their state and reform immigration.

Indeed. Like Dvorak, Bilbray and others who rail about "anchor babies" have a problem with the English language, which, in the text of the Constitution, is quite unambiguous and has been affirmed in a number of key cases before the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, they don't have the fortitude to try to amend the document like Ron Paul, so they have to stoop to ridiculous arguments about 8 month pregnant women waddling over the border in order to give birth to an American and cash a welfare check.

A more serious examination suggests that the whole premise for restricting birthright citizenship is false.

The United States Commission on Immigration Reform (CIR) conducted the most comprehensive and sophisticated study of the economic impact of immigration during the last great immigration scare in the mid-1990s, when Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., and Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, launched a crusade against the foreign invasion of the day. Its findings flew in the face of the conventional wisdom which holds that immigrants suck up more in services than they pay in taxes.

To understand why, you have to look at the entirety of what immigrants pay into the system and what they take out of the system, and you have to distinguish between the short- and the long-term.

The kernel of truth is that recently arrived illegal immigrants do take more in public services than they pay in taxes. But looking ahead to the next generation this deficit reverses quite dramatically. The authors of the CIR study noted that only by looking at the big picture -- including the returns on the investment of education -- can the full fiscal effect of immigration be considered.

The CIR found that when you look at that big picture, the average immigrant and his or her offspring will contribute $80,000 more in taxes than they take in services. The economists found that even those immigrants with less than a high school education contributed positively to the budget when the second generation is included.

When one strips away the demagoguery, that's the reality that's left.

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Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer at AlterNet.

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