A Few Bits of Immigration Information

In the February 27, 2006 issue of National Review, Ramesh Ponnuru discusses Rep. Nathan Deal’s (R-GA) proposed legislation that would change the laws stating that anyone born in this country is automatically a citizen. (The legislation states that children of illegal immigrants are not citizens.) The article made some interesting points and had some interesting statistics that are valuable to any College Republican’s arguments on illegal immigration.

1 out of every 10 children born in the United States has an illegal immigrant mother. These children (all US citizens) cost the federal government (or more properly, the taxpayers) $10 billion/year. California spent $10 billion to educate these children in 2004. Rep. Deal points out that, “Those who come to our country the right way, legally, are the very ones, regardless of national origin, who are asking us to do something about illegal immigration.”

The article references the Center for Immigration Studies (http://www.cis.org) and a document by Thomas Cooley – “The General Principles of Constitutional Law” – which can be found here: (http://www.constitution.org/cmt/tmc/pcl.htm)(the part which is referenced is in Chapter IV, Section III).

Ponnuru is against the bill because he believes that the courts will ignore it whenever it is applicable, and because it works against some of the results of our illegal immigration problem and not against illegal immigration itself.

Rep. Tom Tancredo has an opponent in his August 8 primary. Juan Botero is a resident of Jefferson County who has worked for US Sen. Wayne Allard. The main reason Botero is running is that he disagrees with Tancredo’s policy on – you guessed it – immigration. Tancredo is happy to have a challenger (his response to the news was, “the more the merrier”).