L.A. editorial

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LA Times Editorial
Targeting illegal immigrants
A proposed California ballot initiative takes aim at U.S.-born children
of illegal immigrants.

What is it about illegal immigration that unhinges otherwise reasonable
people, leading them to propose inhumane and unworkable remedies to the
problem? Yes, it is frustrating to have 11 million or 12 million people
living in the shadows of our society. We get it: They shouldn't have
come here illegally. They should have worked through proper channels
and not jumped ahead of other immigrants seeking a life in the United
States. Furthermore, this is a moment of profound economic tension and
competition for resources. Driven by necessity, American citizens are
haunting day-labor sites and taking jobs in orchards and fields
alongside the illegal immigrants who once did most of such work.

But that's no excuse for legalizing discrimination, which is precisely
what would happen under a state ballot initiative now in the
signature-gathering stage and targeted for next year's June election.
If passed, it would require all parents of newborns in California to
prove U.S. citizenship or legal residency in order to receive their
baby's birth certificate. Those who could not would have to pay a $75
fee for a certificate noting the child's "Birth to a Foreign Parent."
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security would be alerted to the
discrepancy. And finally, in willful ignorance of previous California
Supreme Court rulings, the measure would attempt to deny health
benefits to illegal immigrants. Those are federally mandated benefits,
beyond the reach of state law.

Of course, the real goal of Taxpayer Revolution, the anti-tax group
that's sponsoring the initiative, isn't just to slap a scarlet letter
on these children, or even merely to intimidate pregnant women to the
extent that they forgo medical help when in the throes of labor.
Capitalizing on the heightened anti-immigrant sentiment that always
accompanies hard economic times, the group's ultimateaim is to undo
generations of constitutional law and deny the children of illegal
immigrants citizenship.

Although neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor Congress has ever
explicitly ruled on whether the U.S.-born children of illegal
immigrants are entitled to citizenship under the 14th Amendment, the
assumption has long been that they are. If there are genuine doubts
about whether that assumption is wrong, then let's have that debate.
But don't sneak it into an initiative promoted as a tool to "reduce
crime" and keep deported criminal "aliens" from returning to the U.S.
because their citizen children are here.

This measure doesn't consider the weight of law, custom and the complex
social ramifications involved in bestowing and withdrawing citizenship.
It's just simplistic and mean.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-birth9-2009may09,0,7832290.story
May 9, 2009