I HAVE BEEN BATTLING the McClatchy newspapers this month over the "anchor baby" crisis in which the babies of illegal immigrants are granted automatic citizenship. Today, eight percent of babies born in the United States fall into this category. The McClatchy newspapers branded any discussion of reforming this law "racist." Here's what I wrote in response:

In an editorial last week, the [Fresno] Bee tries to smear the supporters of birthright citizenship reform as "heirs" to white supremacists of the 1920s. To make this outrageous comparison, the editors resort to the tactic of equating legitimate concern over illegal immigration with opposition to all immigration.

Having constructed this straw man, the Bee then feels free to tar supporters of birthright citizenship reform as racists in the mold of Senator James Phelan who sought to ban all legal immigration from Asia. It then falsely insinuates that today's reformers would have opposed the landmark 1898 Supreme Court decision that correctly upheld the birthright citizenship of Wong Kim Ark, the child of legal – repeat, legal – Chinese immigrants and their descendants.

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I challenge the editors to cite one statement that any Congressional advocate of reform has made that even remotely suggests barring legal immigrants to our nation or denying their children all the rights of citizenship. Indeed, I have extolled the virtues of legal immigration throughout my entire career in public office.

Unlike most nations, our immigration laws were not written to keep people out. They were written to assure that as immigrants come to America, they come with the intention to become Americans and to fully assimilate into American society by acquiring a common language, a common culture and a common allegiance to American constitutional principles. Illegal immigration undermines the entire process of legal immigration that makes our nation of immigrants possible.

One cannot support both legal and illegal immigration at the same time. If illegal immigration is to be rewarded with birthright citizenship, public benefits and amnesty, it becomes impossible to maintain our immigration laws and the process of assimilation that they assure. Indeed, there is no surer way of destroying a nation of immigrants than by Balkanizing them by language, ethnicity, culture and allegiance.

The Pew Center reported this week that eight percent of babies in the United States today are born to illegal aliens and accorded instant citizenship. The issue is whether the 14th Amendment, a Reconstruction measure to assure citizenship for the children of slaves, should continue to be used to provide automatic citizenship to babies born to parents who, under federal law, are themselves subject to immediate deportation.

Should an illegal act be rewarded by granting a legal right? If the answer is "yes," then how does the Bee suggest that we maintain the rule of law at all? If we stopped enforcing the speed limit and rewarded speeders with automatic license renewal – what would be the point of keeping the signs?

In recent years, the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, France and India have all modified their birthright citizenship laws to require that one parent at least be a legal resident in order to confer birthright citizenship. According to a June 2010 Rasmussen poll, the American people support such a reform by a margin of 58 to 33 percent. Do the Bee's editors seriously contend that 58 percent of the nation's voters are actually white supremacists?

Abraham Lincoln once observed, "You cannot disprove Euclidian geometry by calling Euclid a liar." At a time when our nation desperately needs a civil discussion over an issue that has profound implications for the very sovereignty of our nation, it is a shame that the Bee's editorial staff has chosen instead to hurl accusations of racism against those with whom it disagrees.

Since my response was published, I have received a flood positive emails and phone calls supporting our position that we need to reform birthright citizenship. It is clear that American people are overwhelmingly in favor of our positions....

Sincerely,

Tom McClintock  

To contact Sen. McClintock, click HERE.