The 14th amendment is under stress right now with the pressure from Texas Republicans who are concerned about the “terror babies” being born to illegal immigrants within the U.S. Since the 14th amendment is in place, anybody born in the U.S. gets U.S. citizenship. Congressman in Texas Louie Gohmert and Debbie Riddle, state representative, explain that taxpayers have to pay for illegal immigrants who come to America to have their babies. Next they become sleeper agents back in their own country and return to the U.S. as adults to attack.
Concerns with terror babies
All the facts about terror babies were show on CNN by Anderson Cooper. All the info on terror babies came from “former FBI officials” as outlined by Republicans in Texas, Riddle and Gohmert. Gohmert used terror babies to argue the 14th Amendment should be changed. Women from other countries have kids in the U.S. “with the nefarious purpose of turning them into little terrorists, who’ll then come back to the U.S. and do us harm,” says Riddle.
Cooper pressed them to discover out that these terror babies probably don’t exist considering no evidence was brought forth. Riddle complained on camera that before the taping no one warned her that she would have to come up with actual facts during the interview.
Fat chance these terrorists exist
Think Progress explains that these terror babies are unlikely to exist considering U.S. law. It could be very hard just to get a simple U.S. visa. The U.S. has fingerprints, photos and evidence of the purpose of the trip for these people as well as having had an interview with an officer who works at the U.S. embassy. Kids in born in the U.S. to immigrant women are generally only born there because their mother’s purpose in the country is generally to work.
Anchor babies help with citizenship
The terror babies idea is an escalated perversion of the “anchor babies” talking point used by Republican senators who argue the 14th amendment needs to be rewritten to curb automatic “birthright citizenship.” According to PolitiFact, having a baby in America won’t make you a U.S. citizen any faster than it would have before. It really takes more than 30 years. Until kids are 21, kids can’t sponsor their parents in the country. Parents have to be living in their home for 10 years after getting this sponsor before they’ll be allowed to apply to enter the U.S. again.
FBI evidence a fabrication}
Cooper interviewed on CNN Tom Fuentes, FBI’s assistant director in international operations from 2004 to 2008, after the terror babies story came out from Gohmert and Riddle. According to Fuentes, there has never been anything on terror babies. The Texas Tribune got on this with Elise Hu who wanted to know about any records made between a previous FBI agent and Riddle. Evidently the records were never made.
YouTube
youtube.com/watch?v=jUA7obmYvPk
CNN
cnn.com/2010/OPINION/08/13/navarrette.terror.babies/
Think Progress
thinkprogress.org/2010/08/13/gohmert-terrorists-immigration/
PolitiFact
politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/aug/06/lindsey-graham/illegal-immigrants-anchor-babies-birthright/
