WASHINGTON — The image, if true, is a jarring one: Women about to give birth wait at the Mexican border. As the moment nears, they head north to the nearest United States pay phone. With one quick call to 911, the childbirth is funded by U.S. taxpayers and the newborn receives the ultimate birthday gift--U.S. citizenship.
That's the scenario described by Ron Prince, the leader of California's Proposition 187 campaign and prime backer of what is being called Save Our State II--an effort to amend the U.S. Constitution to end automatic citizenship for the offspring of illegal immigrants born on U.S. soil.
Immigration experts scoff at the notion that pregnant women are streaming into the United States as childbirth looms. "I'd love to hear those 911 tapes," said Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles), a member of the House immigration subcommittee. Added U.S. Border Patrol Agent Marco Ramirez: "We have apprehended pregnant females but it's not like we see them hopping over the fence every day."
But while Prince is probably exaggerating the problem of late-term immigrants, statistics show that tens of thousands of children are born to undocumented mothers in California every year and that, just as Prince says, the offspring are as legal as the President of the United States.
As a result, the children are entitled to government benefits--chiefly, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), which is doled out to undocumented immigrants in the millions of dollars. And besides the benefits, the citizen children are able to sponsor their parents for citizenship once they reach age 21, a concept that stirs the ire of those fighting to curb illegal immigration.
Increasingly, from Prince's group to Gov. Pete Wilson to San Fernando Valley-area congressmen in both political parties, the focus in the illegal immigration fight is broadening from undocumented men hustling across the border for work and undocumented women bringing their undocumented children along to those not yet born.
"We should quit rewarding those who enter our country illegally with citizenship for their children," said Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon (R-Santa Clarita), who has co-sponsored one of the four citizenship initiatives introduced in the House of Representatives.
