Bonnie Erbe: Anchor Babies hurt working class

PBS host, columnist, and presumed liberal Bonnie Erbe reports on the children born to illegal aliens:

...Since their children are delivered on U.S. soil, the children immediately become U.S. citizens and "anchor" the mother (and later, the rest of her family) as future legal U.S. citizens as well...

...California will get the largest chunk of this new federal outlay or almost $71 million [for healthcare]. No wonder. FAIR cites Census Bureau data showing Californians spent $10 billion last year (whew!) to subsidize education, medical care and incarceration costs for (not legal but) illegal immigrants.

Guess who's hit the hardest? Not the wealthy Hollywood types, nor the Silicon Valley billionaires, but the hard-working, low-income recent and legal immigrants. It's costing them nearly $1,200 per native-headed household to subsidize illegal immigration in the Golden State.

...This is not about race. For my part, I am the granddaughter of immigrants who came from Poland, Russia and Cuba. My father's side of the family speaks Spanish as a native language and English with heavy Spanish accents. This is about preserving the quality of life for legal immigrants, and the progeny of immigrants who have come here legally since the birth of our immigrant nation.

It's also about fairness to America's working class -- many of whom are legal immigrants. Their housing, education and health care costs go up as their wages are driven down by immense competition from illegal immigrants. Where's the fairness or practicality in that?

Immigration2005a · Wed, 05/18/2005 - 21:54 · · Importance: 1

Comments

What blatant ignorance. The concept of anchor babies is gone. An anchor baby is no longer needed to avoid deportation in most cases. ICE is, and rightly so, concentrating its efforts on apprehending those that pose the greatest threat to the US. Most OTMs caught on the border are released, all of whom have no anchor baby.

Posted by: Ralph at May 20, 2005 10:24 AM

"Anchor babies is (sic) a thing of the past."

Hardly. I think there is little doubt so-called anchor babies complicate deportation, even in what should be straightforward cases.

And they definitely are a 'thing of the future'...

Maybe more important is that such US citizens can later facilitate family chain migration, even if they are removed as dependent minors if and when their parents are deported. As citizens they can later enter the US, and then apply for relatives to join them. Parents are non-quota, although under current law the petitioning child must be at least 21 y/o. And once the parents are in, they can in turn petition for other minor children. Of course future spouses are also non-quota. Practically ad infinitum.

Like I said before: When all this is taken into consideration, it is estimated giving legal, permanent status to just the illegal Mexicans now in the US could result in as many as 30 million additional Mexican nationals entering the US over time via such family chain migration.

Moron.

Posted by: eh at May 20, 2005 6:41 AM

Anchor babies is a thing of the past. With DHS preoccupied with apprehending those that pose a threat to the US, they don't have the resources to chase down the 11 million relatively harmless immigrants. Stories from all over tell of illegals getting caught and then released. Who needs an anchor baby under those circumstances? Erbe is clearly behind the times.

Posted by: Ralph at May 19, 2005 4:03 AM

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