Think GOP Attacks on Birthright Citizenship is a Recent Aberration? Think Again.

By Michael Bryan

The latest fashion in immigrant bashing on the fascist side of the political fence is to support legislation to deny birthright citizenship to the children of parents lacking the proper immigration status. Our local legislative Führer, Russell Pierce wants to try this grand scheme out here in Arizona. And even 'respectable' mainstream national GOP leaders like McCain and McConnell admit they want to have hearings in the Senate on this modest proposal, even if they won't come out say whether they actually support the proposal. That way they get to satisfy their anti-immigrationist base without seeming like total dingbats to the rest of the electorate.

One hears so much about "anchor babies" and even "terror babies" lately, one might think that GOP politicians just now realized that immigrants reproduce, even without green cards. But, surely, this something that only the wackiest of wack-jobs and the most fervent of anti-immigrationists obsess about? Only those who haunt militia, Klan, Bircher, and Tea Party meetings really worry about such things, right? Mainstream Republicans aren't about to shred the 14th Amendment to prevent some innocent children from becoming citizens in the land of their birth, are they?

Actually, the 'mainstream' of the Republican Party has a long history of anti-immigrationist agitation. And the idea of 'redefining' who gets to be a citizen under the 14th Amendment, and an obsession with the "anchor babies", is not a recent aberration. Nor is it a fringe position. In fact, it was part of the Republican platform of 1996. I expect it will be again soon.

From the 1996 GOP platform (emphasis added):

Illegal aliens should not receive public benefits other than emergency aid, and those who become parents while illegally in the United States should not be qualified to claim benefits for their offspring. Legal immigrants should depend for assistance on their sponsors, who are legally responsible for their financial well-being, not the American taxpayers. Just as we require "deadbeat dads" to provide for the children they bring into the world, we should require "deadbeat sponsors" to provide for the immigrants they bring into the country. We support a constitutional amendment or constitutionally-valid legislation declaring that children born in the United States of parents who are not legally present in the United States or who are not long-term residents are not automatically citizens.

So there you have it. Republicans have wanted to change the constitution to stick it to those wily "anchor babies" for the past 15 years – likely far longer. This mania to attack innocent American-born citizen children because the parents are here without permission is not a new and wing-nutty development in GOP politics. It's been there waiting and lurking for the right circumstances to hatch back out of the mud of GOP racial resentment and scapegoating for years. 

It is not at all a coincidence that this particular nugget of xenophobia turns up in the 1996 platform: that was the last time that the GOP was out of the White House and itching to kick an incumbent Democrat out of the Oval. Using anti-immigration sentiments to attempt to regain power is not new to the GOP.

Next time a GOP politician pooh-poohs the idea of going after the "anchor babies", ask if they supported the party platform of 1996.