As I predicted some time ago, State Senator Russell Pearce introduced the challenge to the 14th amendment to the US constitution to deny citizenship to the children of the (at least one of the parents) undocumented. Read here an article by Time magazine.

Today the legislation seemed to be weakening, although there are reports that Pearce will look for ways to vote it in other committees.

Make no mistake. The reason the challenge to the 14th amendment in the AZ legislation is loosing steam is not because cute kids marched in protest, or organized Latinas raised their voices but because the Chambers of Commerce came discreetly but forceful against it.

Money talks and there is not secret that the economy of Arizona cannot endure another

(or the continuation) economic boycott.

Dismantling The Myth of the "Anchor Baby"

(My comments are in bold)

I have been avoiding the topic just to skip using the jargon the Republicans are abusing.

However now the issue has materialized in 2011 in Arizona and other states with the filling of legislation by nativist politicians as State Senate Presidents (Arizona) Russell Pearce, Congressman Graham and others

The Republican efforts challenging the 14th Amendment, against birthright citizenship is centered by the idea that undocumented immigrants cross the border to have children who will be U.S. citizens. As Senator Lindsey Graham wrote about this, according to a posting from Think Progress -The Wonk Room's Andrea Nill:

“People come here to have babies,” he said. “They come here to drop a child. It's called "drop and leave." To have a child in America, they cross the border, they go to the emergency room, have a child, and that child's automatically an American citizen. That shouldn't be the case. That attracts people here for all the wrong reasons.”

There is a complete intent of dehumanizing immigrants and their families with this theories that also feed conspiracy fantasies.

This is what I found on line following the new report by the Pew Hispanic Center.

"Andrea Nill points that "an overwhelming majority of undocumented immigrants — 91 percent — who became the parents of U.S. citizens between March 2009 and March 2010 came to the U.S. before 2007."

"Contrary to Graham's "drop and leave" theory, only nine percent of undocumented immigrants had children shortly after arriving, and there's a distinct lack of evidence that any of them had children for that reason. Nill writes that these "findings pretty much invalidate the argument that is at the center of the birthright citizenship debate." That's actually not the only information in the Pew Survey that contradicts the views of restrictionists. There's also the news that the undocumented population increased slightly to 11.2 million by March 2010, after falling from 12 million to 11.1 million between 2007-2009"

"Now the Obama administration has tried to take some credit for the decline by pointing to its high numbers ofdeportations and increased resources at the border. But because in the long term border enforcement really does little to stem migration, the decline was more likely attributable to a struggling economy. The waning months of 2009 and early months of 2010 however, saw some economic growth. Maybe that's just a coincidence, but it also might explain the slight uptick in the undocumented population.

The data suggests a really shocking conclusion: People come to the U.S. to get jobs, not to have babies. That means that repealing birthright citizenship isn't likely to stem illegal immigration, because it doesn't alter the incentives that cause people to come here. It will, without a doubt, lead to higher numbers of undocumented immigrants, and the creation of a new, nationless class of children within U.S. borders. If, on the other hand, you're trying to reduce the population of Latino citizens rather than the number of undocumented immigrants, repealing birthright citizenship is one route to take"

I may add that Republicans always seek to dehumanize the undocumented immigrants in diverse ways:

1.-Utilizing humiliating vocabulary.

2.-Describing behavior that is contrary to the socio economic reality.

3.- Ignoring studies and research.

4.-Expecting that future immigration reform will legislate immigrant labor as a commodity, ignoring human realities.

Immigrant laborers, workers that arrive the USA are young and will find love, companionship and their unions will be blessed by the arrival of American citizens).