Legalizing Mothers

One in 10 children born in the US is born to illegal immigrants every year (Doyle, 2003, ¶18). According to the 14th Amendment citizenship is a birthright obtained regardless of where the parents were born (Bulkeley, 2005, ¶5). In the state of Arkansas there has been a dramatic increase, by 10 fold, of children born to immigrants legal or illegal (Camarota, 2005, ¶58). The parents of US citizens however are not granted the same right as citizens even though their children are. When the pilgrims first came to the US they declared themselves citizens, essentially America was founded on “illegal immigration”. Parents today are still coming to America in search of the same freedoms as the pilgrims did yet, they are being told to return home. The statistics of illegal immigration are overwhelming, many famous people are the result of illegal immigration but without proper legislation immigration issues can not be solved. Is this what our founding fathers envisioned long ago?

Statistics

In a study by the Center for Immigration, 7% of Utah’s births in 2002 were to illegal mothers (Bulkeley, 2005, ¶3); it concluded that nearly 10% of children born in the US are born to illegal immigrant mothers (Bulkeley, 2005, ¶8). In California 46% of the children born in 2002 were born to foreign born mothers totaling 116,862 children (Doyle, 2003, ¶18). Mexico accounted for 45% of all immigrant births in 2002 (Camarota, 2005, ¶9). This is because there are more than 10 million Mexican born people living in the US legal or otherwise (Camarota, 2005, ¶46). In 2002 there were approximately 383,000 children born to illegal immigrants (Doyle, 2003, ¶6), of these children 5-10% had illegal mothers but legal fathers (Camarota, 2005, ¶54). US President George Bush approved the spending of billions of dollars to help control border patrol yet, it is estimated that it cost taxpayers $1.7 billion in 2002 to pay for the births to uninsured illegal alien mothers (Camarota, 2005, ¶55). These statistics are too big to ignore, the rise of illegal immigration and birth rates are getting bigger every year.

Famous Immigrants

After extensive research one can find proof of many famous illegal immigrates. For instance, Hollywood actor Benjamin Bratt’s mother came from Peru, at the age of 14 (Wikipedia5, 2006); US Gold Medalist and boxing icon Oscar De La Hoya’s mother came from Mexico to escape poverty (Wikipedia6, 2006); acclaimed actor Hector Elizondo’s parents (originally from Spain) came from Puerto Rico searching for a better life (Wikipedia7, 2006); and New York Yankees pitcher “The Duke of Havana” Orlando Hernandez came from Cuba illegally (Martino, 2002, ¶1). Since the pilgrims first came across on the Mayflower immigration has been a problem. George Washington and the other founding fathers were each “illegal immigrants” that helped build the US with the hopes of helping people to escape oppression and to build better lives for themselves and their families. However, today many immigrants are being punished for wanting the very freedoms that Americans each take for granted every day.

Legislation

Illegal immigrants face the fear of deportation everyday. Many immigrants fear of being separated from their loved ones, including their children, or even persecution if they are deported. In many cases children born in the US to illegal immigrant parents can fight the expedition of their parents or even sponsor them for citizenship when they are adults (Camarota, 2005, ¶6). One way to put these fears at ease is by passing legislation to provide citizenship for parents of US children. Some suggestions for stipulations would be to set a deadline of when eligibility could be obtained (ex. If an illegal parent had a child before January 1, 2004), another stipulation would be a clean arrest record, and the possible repayment