Steve King Vows To Take On Birthright Citizenship

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), fresh off of a massive GOP victory earlier this month that is looking likely to make him a key pilot of the next Congress's immigration policy as likely chairman of a House subcommittee on immigration, recently explained how he plans to take on his bête noire, birthright citizenship.

Here's what King told the Des Moines Cityview about his plans to repeal a clause in the 14th Amendment that overturned the landmark Dred Scott case and promised American citizenship to freed slaves:

"The framers did not consider the babies of illegals when they framed the 14th amendment because we didn't have immigration law at the time so they could not have wanted to confer automatic citizenship on the babies of people who were unlawfully in the United States," King said.

King wants Congress to pass a ban on "anchor babies," place it in statute, and wait for the other side to challenge the prohibition in the courts. If King and his forces lose, they'll move for a constitutional amendment to change the practice, he said.

Such plans signify a willingness to embark on the incredibly onerous task of amending the Constitution, a process that would require ratification by two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths of state legislatures.

But according to the Cityview, King believes that the issue warrants such an effort. King says that the framers of the amendment intended to include exceptions in the its wording, "including [of] certain Indian tribes and babies born to ambassadors or visitors." That's why they included the phrase "subject to the jurisdiction thereof," said King, who recently appeared to argue that undocumented immigrants were simply not subject to U.S. law.

King won't be alone in the venture, as some have predicted that the Republican-controlled Congress -- which has representatives on both sides of the debate -- will attempt to tackle the contentious issue as soon as it convenes in January.

Senate GOPers have been also been outspoken about opening the 14th Amendment to review. Senators Kyl (Ariz.), Graham (S.C), Coburn (Okla.), Grassley (Iowa) and McConnell (Ky.), among the most powerful Republicans in the chamber, have all come out against birthright citizenship.

On the state level, legislators in at least 13 states have begun drafting legislation that would seek to remove birthright citizenship guarantees from their specific laws.

Comments

[Nikolous Miller]

01:32 PM on 12/06/2010

"The framers did not consider the babies of illegals when they framed the 14th amendment"

O.k King, ...do you think the framers of the 2nd Amendment considered the proliferation of automatic weapons among teenagers with the intent of massacring their classmates?
No. The amendment was drafted so citizens could form militias and protect themselves from tyranny.

Do you think the framers of the 4th amendment considered the fact that in the future we would have trained dogs that could sniff out basically any substance without having to consent to a search and seizure? No.

Do you think the framers of the 10th amendment considered that states like Arkansas would abuse their state right to their own education policies and barr disabled peoples from attending schools in order that they could attain certain test scores and avoid becoming Title I?
No.

Rep. King has an issue with American history. You can not cross the lives of the individual authors (in their time ENTIRELY different periods) into today's America.
The authors of the constitution owned SLAVES, for God sakes. They were different people than we are now, and the fact that a man with as much power as King can be so fallacious and erroneous in his logic is terrifying and sad.

[blindhog]

01:31 AM on 11/30/2010

Each day we ignore this problem, it just gets worse! He is right, it is truly an invasion.

They even have the audacity to openly flaunt their language. What a laugh, they don't want to live in the United States of America. They want to live in a newly expanded Mexico.

[BeasleysMom]

05:43 PM on 11/26/2010

 
'...his plans to repeal a clause in the 14th Amendment."
 
 
More red meat for the folks who have no idea what it takes to amend the constitution.
 
Too bad King won't be coming up with any real ideas that might work.

[spytheweb]

10:04 PM on 11/26/2010

Let's just add an amendment to the 14th that states, "anyone born in the US must have at least one US parent to be born a US citizen". What US citizen would be against that? And why?

Anyone born of foreign parents would be a citizen of their parent's country.

My youngest son was born in the Philippines, born a US citizen.

[Soule23]

09:51 AM on 11/27/2010

Too bad we can't deport him back there. Then maybe you'd have an iota of sympathy for the plight of the illegals.

[gypsysailor]

04:38 PM on 11/26/2010

Before his opens his mouth he better find out if his kin folks were in the country legally to begin with.

[genrel1248]

02:52 PM on 11/26/2010

On my mark.....commence the crazy......3-2-1-GO!

[softvoice]

02:39 PM on 11/26/2010

Of course King and other Republicans want to spend the next two years dividing this country even further. They have no answers to our problems other than to keep giving rich people more tax breaks. They want to appear to be working all while not really doing anything to move the country forward.

[Fattonecat]

02:11 PM on 11/26/2010

Little stevie king couldn't solve his way out of a wet paper bag.

[ROBINB72]

01:32 PM on 11/26/2010

....and the writers of the constitution considered Black People as Life Stock and Indians as Vermin. Out of that, All Men are born free and have the same.... blah blah blah....

[charlesdickens]

12:41 PM on 11/26/2010

More foolish red herrings while people do not have jobs.

[BeasleysMom]

05:44 PM on 11/26/2010

Exactly.

[Soule23]

07:40 PM on 11/26/2010

It's called scapegoating. The conservative faction has been doing it since practically the day after the first Thanksgiving.

[Soule23]

11:53 AM on 11/26/2010

I realize that "illegal" is not a race, but let's look at underlying motives for a moment here. What would lead you to organize rallies against a particular group of people; what would put the fire in your belly to post hateful comments on any pro-immigration blog; what would convince you to start lobbying organizations to oppose a certain group of people? It's thinly veiled hate--that's what motivates the anti's. The anti-immigrants, in the form of FAIR, ALIPAC, CIS, NumbersUSA, etc. are no more than modern renditions of the K K K with good PR people. Be sure, whenever possible to call them out by name and to call them what they are. The media have a penchant for quoting "statistics" from FAIR and CIS, because those organizations are only too happy to provide them. Remember--K K K with good press agents.

[Soule23]

11:25 AM on 11/26/2010

Why does the GOP hate babies?

[tenndemo]

10:43 AM on 11/26/2010

While we are talking about "framers", let's not forget the framers of your beloved 2nd. They had no idea of an assualt rifle.

[Soule23]

11:26 AM on 11/26/2010

Funny thing is that the cons go on and on about how they need the 2nd amendment to protect their constitutional rights, when it is the cons who always insist on undermining the Constitution.

[she343]

08:52 AM on 11/26/2010

GOD-I wish the world was as simple as some of these views imply! A few points to ponder:

1- There wouldn't be near as many S.Amer. illegals if our pol. policies/farm subsidies were fair to all parties. Subsidized grain farming to undercut their farmers-big oil/mining stripping their land without paying decent wages to locals or real owners of the land
2-US farm policy that tries to provide cheap food--but ends up screwing small farmers, farm workers,and customers while making a few top execs. in agrabusiness ultra rich.
3- the fact (check the stats) that undoc. workers add more to economy than they take----of course "owners" benefit and tax payers pay the bills
4- middle class is being crushed from the top down, not bottom up---but they make good scape goats! Wall ST, big bankers, are back to record paychecks--cab drivers, lettace pickers etc. are still working long hard hours for pennies by comparision.
5- Do you really want middle Am. to waste their education and tech. smarts in jobs that will not even pay a living wage?? This is a race to the bottom for us all.
6- What is the REAL birthrate among undoc. workers?? Most studies show, as soon as parents see a future for their children they have less children so

[Soule23]

11:30 AM on 11/26/2010

Some more points:

There are plenty of undocumented workers working on small and medium-sized farms. Hispanic-Americans, legal and illegal, have swept into farm communities across the nation as the native-born population has gone for more education and urban environs to fill the jobs left vacant.

Moreover, the mass deportation/ethnic cleansing advocated by the anti-immigrants would cost more than "Obamacare" or Iraq and Afghanistan. It is, in essence, a big government handout to racists and xenophobes.

[voyager48]

11:14 AM on 12/06/2010

um... not quite. sorry to disagree with you and Mayor Vivalaraza but illegals do not come here to clean toilets and pick crops. If you look at areas with the highest illegal concentrations in the country, CA, TX, FL, IL, AZ and then they generally settle in industrial areas (LA, Phoenix, Miami) http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/jtf/JTF_IllegalImmigrantsJTF.pdf. Orange County and Santa Ana CA have the highest % hispanic population in the country. I worked in Sabnata Ana and probably 80% of the workers at the factory were illegals.

[Soule23]

11:31 AM on 11/26/2010

Some more points:

There are plenty of undocumented workers working on small and medium-sized farms. Hispanic-Americans, legal and illegal, have swept into farm communities across the nation as the native-born population has gone for more education and urban environs to fill the jobs left vacant.

Moreover, the mass deportation/eth.nic cleansing advocated by the anti-immigrants would cost more than "Obamacare" or Iraq and Afghanistan. It is, in essence, a big government handout to raci.sts and xeno.phobes.

[rgilley]

08:34 AM on 11/26/2010

Perhaps it's time real Americans took some controversial steps to rid our country of right wong racist such as King .

[SwimUpstream]

10:26 AM on 11/26/2010

I believe that people are allowed to have a point of view that differs from your own and still remain in the country

[tenndemo]

10:50 AM on 11/26/2010

Too bad king isn't like minded.

[Soule23]

11:32 AM on 11/26/2010

You must not watch Faux News.

[GoldStarMom]

05:13 AM on 11/26/2010

Without touching on any other related subject, why does he want to remove all birthright citizenship? Couldn't Congress pass a simple law which states that only children with at least one American citizen parent -- natural or naturalized -- are American citizens? Or is that overly simplistic?

[MJinCanada]

10:14 AM on 11/26/2010

If one wanted to simply deal with the anchor babies issue, most countries would probably see that as fair. Several of the European countries with generous free education, health care, etc., are pretty choosy about immigration because they would be quite flooded otherwise (by Americans as well as Asians, former Soviet 'stans, etc.).

However, the 14th Amendment also guarantees that the federal Bill of Rights overrules state rights when it comes to human rights and equal rights in the courts, education, voting, etc. I think that's what some of these bigots want to overturn. I think that's a large part of the "small government" BS as well -- the right to discriminate, abuse and beat down minorities, women and common people in their little corner of the US.

[Soule23]

11:34 AM on 11/26/2010

That's the crux of the conservative agenda. We just aren't allowed to say it out loud. Talk about the "PC doctrine" that they always whine about...

[Soule23]

11:36 AM on 11/26/2010

Birthright citizenship guarantees that anyone born on US soil is a US citizen...such a law would violate the 14th amendment. The con movement against the 14th amendment is misguided anyway--parents don't get any sort of legal status by having children here, and if they are caught by ICE, their children are either deported or turned over to Child Protective Services.