Lion in Winter

It isn't illegal or difficult currently. I thought that that's what the concern was. Born in the US, you are legally a US citizen.

jkeller

If it's such a tiny percentage then how come the ballots here in Texas are printed in english and spanish? How come any time I call a company it always starts...for english press 1, para espanol marque nevue?

Lion in Winter

Because you are in Texas, where a huge quantity of people speak Spanish as a first language? Why is that a problem? Until quite recently, in historical terms, it was part of Mexico.

And why do you think that the Spanish-speaking population of Texas stems from "anchor babies"?

Also, it's "nueve"

chawkins99

The discussion is about women coming 'illegally' to the US and giving birth, thus making the child a US citizen. Then we get the outcry when the undocumented mother is deported thus separating the mother from the child.

kimilseung

Are we getting to the real issue for you now?

For those in Texas and know it's it's history. Either after the Texas independent state was formed or after it United with the USA, were the Spanish speakers expelled from Texas?

Lion in Winter

The discussion is, I believe, about women coming the US both legally and illegally. The "holiday trips" from Russia, for example, are presumably with a tourist visa.

And the separation of a child from its mother should always cause an outcry, because in my book humanitarian issues rank above someone's immigration rules. Immigration rules do not, or should not, require such separation.

And since we are discussing the issue of babies being born here legally acquiring citizenship just because they are born here, then numbers absolutely do matter.

There are approx 275,000 such births. Unauthorized immigrants, in their totality, are less than 4% of the population of the US. What percentage do you reckon the parents of these children now born citizens form?

Lion in Winter

Creo que sí.

jkeller

chawkins99

Where do you draw the line? Should a murderer go free because they would be separated from their child if jailed? What if that murderer is also an illegal immigrant?

Immigration rules do not require such separation. The child can return with the mother. Presumably the child is also a citizen of the mother's country. That's the way most country's immigration laws work.

kimilseung

Child and mother, both as citizens, there is a novel idea. Has anyone in the thread suggested that yet?

Lion in Winter

You had better brush up then, there are a lot of languages in Texas. Mexican migration into Texas, and the rest of the US, has actually been dropping for some years now. In Texas, there is a lot of growth in Asian immigrants. Maybe you should go and check if any of them are having babies.

Top 10 languages other than English spoken in Texas households
Of the nearly 24 million people in Texas five years or older, 65 percent speak only English at home. The rest speak more than 160 languages combined.
Spanish 6,983,380
Vietnamese 193,408
Chinese 140,971
Tagalog 72,248
German 69,140
French 60,730
Hindi 59,602
Urdu 57,662
Korean 55,794
Arabic 55,304

https://www.texastribune.org/2015/11...n-texas-homes/

Lion in Winter

By the way, nobody has yet answered my question as to what harm any of the children who acquired citizenship by being born here, and their families, if they join them, are doing to the US.

Remember the numbers. All undocumented immigrants together amount to less than 4% of the population of the country, with a smaller fraction being adults who acquired legal residency here by having a child here - 21 years later.

Answers on a postcard please.

Lion in Winter

Spectacular red herring. What have murderers got to do with what we were actually discussing?

I see you haven't been reading about Trump's child prisons then. Separation is most clearly required.

Now, you tell me - what is the benefit to the US of plucking a small number (relative to that less than 4% of the US population, remember) of parents, who are working, paying taxes, buying houses and cars and other goods in the US, contributing to the economy, out of this country and leaving their children either here without parents or moving to a country they do not know and have never lived in? Who benefits from that, exactly?

jeepster

It's not a problem as far as you are concerned because it doesn't affect you.

You're not going to lose your job to an illegal immigrant because they are willing to work cheaper than you. You're not one of the homeless because you've been replaced by illegal immigrants and you've lost your home.

When I was growing up in Chicago I worked in a couple of factories, most of the workers were African American. Today most factory jobs, the ones that exist are employing hispanics. They've pushed the Blacks out. This is a fact. Illegal immigration is here for one reason and one reason only...lower wages. And the result is a huge underclass that need all types of social services and creates social problems for all the unemployed, under employed working class Americans. This is the number one reason for gun violence on the South and West sides of Chicago. It's not gangs it's massive youth unemployment in the Black community.
We're turning into a have and have not society. And the haves have so much empathy for illegal immigrants and have so little empathy for their fellow citizens. Shame on you.

Gordon Barlow

Just on a point of order... when did child prisons in the USA become "Trump's child prisons"? Your statement strongly implies - as it was presumably meant to do - that Trump himself was so dreadfully wicked as to have invented them, and that they hadn't existed before. But that's not true, is it? Disliking Trump is one thing, but don't let's get carried away.
https://www.childtrends.org/indicato...nile-detention