Thomas Elias: More fiction than fact about 'anchor babies' born in U.S.

[pampango]

http://www.thecalifornian.com/article/20100830/OPINION/8300308

No group is so hated by the many Americans who resent illegal immigration as so-called "anchor babies" born in the United States to illegal immigrant women. "There is an orchestrated effort by to come here and have children to gain access to the great welfare state we've created," maintains Arizona Republican state Sen. Russell Pearce, author of his state's landmark SB 1070, the law that seeks to compel that police demand documents of anyone they deal with who might possibly be in America illegally.

The problem with all these claims is that they run counter to most known facts about "anchor babies." Infants born to undocumented mothers account for about 8 percent of all U.S. births, but no one knows how many of their fathers might have legal status, according to a new study from the Pew Hispanic Center. More than 80 percent of those new mothers had been in this country at least one year, with more than half here at least three years and a large but unspecified percentage here 10 years or more. Not exactly tourists, so if there is maternity tourism, it can't be widespread.

That could cause myriad problems. For one thing, it would mean every new parent would have to produce a birth certificate to get citizenship for a newborn. If none could be found, the infant would have to apply for what is called "derivative citizenship." "That process is very complex and fraught with error and passing a law like this would necessitate setting up a new bureaucracy at great expense," Bill Ong Hing, a law professor at the University of San Francisco, told a press conference the other day. "More important, though, is that these kids are to a large extent our future."

Then there's the fact that no one has proven "maternity tourism" or having "anchor babies" is a main cause of illegal immigration. "The anti-illegal immigration people are using this right now to keep people riled up even as actual border crossings are at their lowest point in decades and steadily dropping," said Stock. The southern border has become less permeable under President Obama than under any other recent president.