Paying for anchor babies

On the Vdare website, a South Carolina registered nurse vents her complaints about her hospital duties, where one-third of births are to illegal aliens.

She tells of women from South American countries who have never learned to read and write in their own native languages. Some, like indigenous Indians from Guatemala, never even learned to speak Spanish in their own countries, and certainly don't know a word of English. Yet voting advocates are insisting that such people participate in U.S. elections.

The nurse writes, "You pay over $2 billion each year just for illegals to have their anchor babies [children who are born over the border in the U.S., which insures American citizenship and benefits]." She logically proposes, "If the mother is an illegal alien who is not under our jurisdiction, then so is her baby."

Before the misinterpretation of the immigration clause in the Constitution, this was considered to be the case. Where jurisdiction was the key, the child shared the same citizenship as his parents, and did not magically become an American citizen because the mother happened to be in the country at the time she gave birth.