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Subject: Ron Bass - Birthright citizenship - NorthJersey.com

Born American? NorthJersey.com Sun, 02 Jul 2006 4:00 AM PDT The two young brothers are nearly mirror images of each other. They have pin-straight black hair, beaming dark eyes and a thin frame. The little brother, who is 2, loves tagging after the older one, who is 7, and responds to the little one with an almost paternal patience.............. Linden businessman Ron Bass, for one, is eager to see the proposed amendment become reality. Birthright citizenship "is not a good way to run your country," said Bass, founder of the United Patriots of America, a New Jersey-based group that favors a hard line on illegal immigration. "The American people are brainwashed and taught to be compassionate at all costs. But this is like a stranger just walking into your house and giving birth there, and saying 'Now that I had the baby in your house, we're living here, it's the baby's house and this is our new address.' "

Born American?

Sunday July 2, 2006

By Elizabeth Llorente

Staff Writer Bergen County Record  New Jersey

The two young brothers are nearly mirror images of each other.

They have pin-straight black hair, beaming dark eyes and a thin frame. The little brother, who is 2, loves tagging after the older one, who is 7, and responds to the little one with an almost paternal patience.

But because of where they were born, these sons of illegal immigrants travel through life on starkly different paths.

The older son, who was born in Peru and is living in Lodi illegally, is ineligible for most public assistance. If immigration-related policies remain, he will be unable in later years to obtain a driver's license or receive financial aid for college. But the toddler qualifies for every benefit and program provided to most Americans. He was born in New Jersey, and thus is a U.S. citizen.

Now, a proposed constitutional amendment seeks to deny future babies born to illegal immigrants automatic U.S. citizenship on the contention that it rewards the lawbreaking parents and encourages illegal immigration.

The congressional proposal is rooted in a view held by many who favor conservative immigration policies: that the 14th Amendment was intended to give birthright citizenship to freed slaves, not the babies of people who live here illegally.

The measure, drafted by Rep. Nathan Deal, a Georgia Republican, failed to win inclusion in an immigration reform bill that passed in the House of Representatives in December. But it has more than 70 co-sponsors and Deal has vowed to press forward.

Denying automatic citizenship to children of illegal immigrants would be such a seismic move that advocates and critics alike feel it is unlikely to happen. Still, with Congress considering immigration reform measures that once seemed too far-fetched to be part of the national debate, those on both sides are watching closely.

"You can't just ignore something like this because it seems like it could never pass," said Charles Kuck, the vice president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "You can't ignore something that is being pushed by people in Congress, people who make our laws."

Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, argues that the willingness of Congress in the last several months to consider tough immigration enforcement measures bolsters the chances that birthright citizenship will be tackled.

"I don't think the proposal to stop automatic citizenship in a way it was not intended is at all extreme," Mehlman said, "when you think of how practically all countries on Earth don't grant citizenship to just anyone who is born on their soil."

Besides the U.S., Canada, Mexico and other Latin American countries follow variations of birthright citizenship. But many countries base a baby's citizenship on that of the parents.

At the very least, the debate over birthright citizenship is heightening the tensions over illegal immigration.

"Nativists have tried to take away birthright citizenship with every wave of anti-immigrant sentiment," Kuck said. "They can't be dismissed because this issue is a bellwether issue, like flag burning and same-sex marriage. It's meant to draw lines in the sand about where you stand."

Linden businessman Ron Bass, for one, is eager to see the proposed amendment become reality.

Birthright citizenship "is not a good way to run your country," said Bass, founder of the United Patriots of America, a New Jersey-based group that favors a hard line on illegal immigration.

"The American people are brainwashed and taught to be compassionate at all costs. But this is like a stranger just walking into your house and giving birth there, and saying 'Now that I had the baby in your house, we're living here, it's the baby's house and this is our new address.' "

The number of U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants is estimated to be 3 million. Some 200,000 more are believed to be born each year. Whether or not the Deal proposal gains legislative traction, it has focused attention on the fate of those children.

"The debate about citizenship for these children has gained altitude," said Gustavo Ramirez, executive director of the Passaic-based Immigration and American Citizenship Organization, "and it is, after all, being discussed in the United States Congress. It's a wake-up call that this idea has managed to even reach that level. They are talking about leaving innocent kids without a country."

In Passaic, inside the North Hudson Community Action Corp. on Main Avenue, the father of the young Peruvian brothers spoke with bewilderment about the different worlds they inhabit.

"He'll get everything," he said, gesturing to his toddler. "He is a U.S. citizen. But my other son, we have to make sacrifices, find money from every source, to pay for even the most basic thing if he needs a service."

The father, who came from Peru five years ago on a tourist visa but did not return when it expired, said he understands the U.S. government's right to enforce immigration laws.

"I respect this government," he said. "Aside from overstaying my visa for a better life for my family, my wife and I have made painstaking efforts to obey all the laws."

He takes offense at the allegation by critics of undocumented immigrants that many foreign-born women come to the United States just to give birth to a child that will reap all U.S. citizenship benefits. The critics term these children "anchor babies," contending that illegal immigrant parents see them as a way to "anchor" themselves in the United States.

He said such charges ignore the many contributions that he and other undocumented immigrants make to the United States – contributions that he says eclipse the essentially non-existent benefits the parents directly derive from a U.S.-born child.

"We work hard, we sacrifice a lot," he said. "We're not gold diggers. I am a college-trained teacher who is doing menial work here. My wife is a college-trained accountant who also has done menial work. And aside from our labor, we always donate to charities, especially the ones that support the firefighters, the volunteer ambulance corps, the police departments."

But beyond that, he said, undocumented immigrant parents such as he and his wife are serious about raising children who will love the United States and thrive here.

"These children feel and think more American than Peruvian."

The older son's ears perked up. Sitting beside a duffel bag that bore an image of a U.S. flag, the boy chimed in: "I like speaking English better than Spanish."

In Union City, an undocumented Mexican woman who is three months pregnant and the mother of a U.S.-born 4-year-old echoed the Peruvian man's assertions.

"The decision to leave one's homeland is not a random, easy one," said the woman, who is 22. "If I hadn't been poor and hungry and without hope in my native country, I would have preferred to stay there. Why go to a place that you don't know, where you don't know the language, where you feel insecure, and if you're without papers, you look over your shoulders every hour of every day, unless it was a necessity?"

"You just don't go to a strange land just to have a baby," she said.

E-mail: llorente@northjersey.com