Tennessee GOPer Curry Todd: Illegal Immigrants Will Multiply 'Like Rats' (VIDEO)

Tennessee State Rep. Curry Todd took his dissatisfaction with the birthright citizenship clause in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to a strange level this week, when he suggested that pregnant immigrants will "multiply" like "rats" if they are not asked about their citizenship status.

During a discussion about procedures for approving patients for health care access, Todd asked a panel of prenatal health care officials if they require potential patients to show proof of citizenship in order to be accepted for treatment.

One woman then explained that such a process is not necessary -- and is in fact prohibited -- because unborn children will become United States citizens upon birth.

"There's a technical guidance letter that states that, for covering the unborn child, we are not permitted to determine citizenship because the child, once born, is a U.S. citizen," the woman explained.

"They can go out there like rats and multiply, then," Todd responded.

According to the Associated Press, Rep. Todd later agreed that he had used harsh wording.

"I was actually wrong, and I admit when I'm wrong," Todd said, before clarifying that he should have used the term "anchor babies" instead -- presumably in an entirely different sentence.

He then qualified that statement, however, by saying that the issue is actually a serious concern that needed to be addressed.

Many in the GOP, like Rep. Todd, have voiced strong concern over the 14th Amendment. ThinkProgress reported in October that 130 congressional Republicans favored ending birthright citizenship, not including a swath of newly elected GOPers.

WATCH:

Comments

[SarahSarah]

06:36 PM on 11/24/2010

I actually like rats (great pets) but I still think that his comment is vile since calling people rats has been used in the past to justify killing them.

The one thing that he has going for him is that he knows how to issue an apology that is actually an apology. It is good to see a politician admit he was wrong rather than just dig himself in deeper. But I think we now know how he actually feels about brownish people.

[spytheweb]

09:46 PM on 11/17/2010

"that pregnant immigrants will "multiply" like "rats" if they are not asked about their citizenship status."

That's not true, they will multiply like rabbits.

Here's a story about illegals, in country 15 years, can't speak english, unemployed and have 10 US born children. Coming to a neighborhood near you.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6457318n&tag=related;photovideo

[PartyOfMaybe]

07:32 PM on 11/17/2010

Why do we get "offended" when we hear the truth? Our population is in decline. Except that it keeps growing. How could that be?

[Luci Marisol Flores]

12:27 PM on 11/17/2010

How offensive that is... he can shove his apology you know where!!! I HATE REPUBLICANS!!! and especially Jan Brewer and this one... and guess what I might be a latina but I vote and you definately do not have my vote you morans!!!

[mading6]

09:23 PM on 11/21/2010

Why is it that many people of the latina race back up another latin just because they are of the same race and do not care if the person broke the law or not??????????

It makes no sense!!

I don't care what race someone is, if they broke the law, they broke the law and I am not going to defend them and scream out RACISM. And RACISM is a brat tactic that makes absolutely NO SENSE at all. It does not matter what race you are when you break the law. So basically this RACISM (so called defense) is a term used to let people BREAK LAWS.

So you can break any law you want because then you have the term RACISM to scream out!!!

Wow must be nice. :)

[Mx7777]

04:29 PM on 11/16/2010

Some people in the GOP realized that demonizing "immigrants" (illegal or not) was a bad business for their cause because they alienated the latino vote in the near future.
And now they try to "tone down" the anti-immigrant rhetoric. But there are some "loose cannons" that don't realize the "party is over" (midterm elections).
For the GOP things gonna get ugly in the near future.

[joeschmeaux]

02:19 PM on 11/14/2010

Way to show your true colors dude!

[ztck5356]

08:03 AM on 11/13/2010

If it is true that illegal immigrants are coming to Tennessee to have their babies for the health care, then as a lawmaker it is his job to pass legislation to correct this. It is not his job to degrade humans in the process. I looked him up and he is a Republican. His comments do not surprise me. Republican politicians seem to have had their "compassionate" gene either removed, or they are simply born without one.

[logical voice]

12:44 AM on 11/14/2010

I know, some republicans are so vile and mean spirited its ironic that they are supposed to support christian values! I wish they would stop their ridiculous spending especially on their foreign policies and lower our taxes. Most americans know the cost of helping a poor illegal immigrant to have a baby is just a small fraction to what we pay to bail out private businesses, pay for wars and to meddle in other people's countries.

[PaticaDeGato]

05:57 AM on 11/13/2010

A Republican being a bigoted jerk to stir up his base. Is this really news?

[Raul Arellano]

12:27 AM on 11/13/2010

It is impossible for the rats you forget where you came from.

[TOPCAT711]

09:49 PM on 11/12/2010

I remember seeing (somewhere ?) a political cartoon from a newspaper in 1930's Germany depicting Jews as rats.

And what, sir, would you suggest the method of extermination to be this time ?

[Bumpkins]

10:05 PM on 11/12/2010

I have lived to see the hatred of the 50's and 60's, it was not pretty.

[MsGray]

10:09 PM on 11/12/2010

So now you're going to compare the Holocaust to the deportation of illegals. Yeah, because that's the same thing.

[SirSlappy]

10:39 PM on 11/12/2010

I'm for deporting illegals and against the dehumanization of them, by comparing them to rodents. Learn to parse ideas, and you might actually win someone over to your viewpoint some day.

[jjtx]

10:45 PM on 11/12/2010

the hate and fear are the same

[Francheska]

08:50 PM on 11/12/2010

It just seems like anything that comes up comes out of the mouths of some elected leaders nowadays. They do not even stop to think about what they are saying, they just say stuff and then walk it back when/if they get called out for it.

[ztck5356]

08:05 AM on 11/13/2010

Their "true colors" are emerging. I'm glad they are exposing themselves. (In more ways than one!).

[mading6]

09:27 PM on 11/21/2010

And it is not just him. Most Americans are NOT for illegal immigration!!!!!!!!

[pene]

07:35 PM on 11/12/2010

While his comment offensively targets "illegals" (that nebulous nefarious group made up of.....people!), it is actually not far from the truth. Ask any native peoples in the so-called new world (try starting with the "mexicans" who are also first peoples), and they will tell you that the same thing happened with the white folks got here (white folks meaning european xtians).

What goes around comes around, eh buddy?

[Bumpkins]

09:35 PM on 11/12/2010

You jest right? Are you referring to 500 years ago.......first peoples is a reference I am not familiar with. It is hard to digest your comments without taking some tums.

[gevan]

10:37 PM on 11/12/2010

The first nations were also immigrants from Asia. They just beat the rush.

[PeterOregon]

07:34 PM on 11/12/2010

Republicans and tea-partiers, they love the constitution and it's perfect as scripture, except for a few changes they'd like to make.

Immigration is the strength of this country and always has been. No matter the group, they arrived poor, lived on the margins of society, and within a generation or two became a key part of that society.

These are not "Anchor babies", they are newly born American citizens who, with just a bit of care and feeding, will grow up to work and pay taxes and support their elders.

Do we really think the future of the US lies in an aging white population with a low birth rate? I know it's scary to think brown people will be everywhere, but really, it's okay. Just like your parents and grandparents worried about the Chinese, Italians, Irish, Jews, Catholics, and anything other different, you too are suffering from a mild xenophobia. Just relax, order a pizza, sit on the ottoman, and watch some Sopranos.

[skepticalindenver]

08:40 PM on 11/12/2010

Perfect post. F & F.

[MsGray]

09:00 PM on 11/12/2010

I'd prefer our immigrants come here legally, speak English, have an education, aren't illiterate in their own language, support themselves and their families, and don't rely on welfare. Many of our new immigrant populations fit the bill - I work amongst a bunch of Indians, and I know they surely do. More of that, and less of the other, thanks. Nice sentiments though.

[floridian5555]

06:11 PM on 11/16/2010

@MSGRAY....The economy has grown so much because ALL the Hispanics have contributed to this country 200% in so many ways. Hispanics speak, write, read and translate the English language other than Spanish, they are educated. There are good people and bad people from every race. We ALL are immigrants..this country belong to the Native American which most Caucasians deny and that is lack of education. Racist is lack of education and phobia towards others.

[nova1215]

07:30 PM on 11/12/2010

Congratulations anti-immigrants. You are part of a very old club.

"Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our Languages or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion. [Benjamin Franklin, 1751]"

“The Irish fill our prisons, our poor houses. … Scratch a convict or a pauper, and the chances are that you tickle the skin of an Irish Catholic. Putting them on a boat and sending them home would end crime in this country.” [Chicago Post, 1868]

"Today, instead of a nation descended from generations of freemen bred to a knowledge of principles and practice of self government, of liberty under the law, we have a heterogeneous population, no small proportion of which is sprung from races that throughout the centuries have known no liberty at all… In other words our capacity to maintain our cherished institutions stands diluted by a stream of alien blood...[Rep. Albert Johnson, 1927, justifying the 1924 National Origins Act] "

"The number of purely white People in the World is proportionally very small…in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are Germans also, the Saxons only accepted, who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth. [Benjamin Franklin, 1751]"

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/08/23/buchanan-nativism/

[Cal90210]

08:02 PM on 11/12/2010

You mean Congratulations anti-illegal immigrants, don't you? Starting off conflating legal with illegal immigration isn't really a good start.

[ghostrider57]

09:43 PM on 11/12/2010

Prior to Ellis Island there were no immigration laws.

But I bet if you ask the people who were here before the Europeans got here they would say that we are all illegals and that includes the people that lived in what is now Mexico.

So actually his comment is correct, while yours is not.

[pene]

07:46 PM on 11/12/2010

i flagged this as abusive because at first I thought you were kidding and going to point to all these things and then, presto, it's a red state profile. But no, you actually meant to state that illegals sexualize their pre-pubescent daughters and engage in child sexual abuse, presumably at greater rates than legitimate US citizens. That they have multiple children with multiple fathers before the age of 17. What is sickening is the fact that you took the time to write out untruths and present them as the truth. That, to me, is abusive.
One look at the girls going to middle school and high school in lilly white suburbs disproves the first statement. Reserach has shown that sexual abuse happens across cultures and social ranking. Teen pregnancy rates, and teen STD rates, are quite high in the U.S. population without reference to national origin.
Get some facts, JRBC12 before you spew your hatred at the wrong targets. As long as U.S. commercial interests need slave labor, we will have illegal immigrants.