By Former Agent
05/28/2024
Earlier: Presidential Candidate RFK JR. Must Acknowledge Immigration Sins Of Kennedy Dynasty
Back when the Senate tried to pass its atrocious border bill, Senator James Lankford (R-OK) was touted as one of the writers of the bill and we were told that he was an immigration hawk. I had my doubts, so I went to where I usually go to verify whether a politician was the real deal or not: NumbersUSA.com’s grade cards. At the time, Numbers USA was giving Lankford an A+ rating. I was shocked that someone who had such a high rating would be going in on such a joke of a bill. NumbersUSA had him rated as an A+ on four issues, but “No Action” on six issues. So, I guess the NumbersUSA algorithm simply doesn’t count a “No Action” as a negative. Since then, I see that NumbersUSA has revised Lankford’s immigration grade card down to a C+. (I think they are being far too generous to him.)
I take a different view. To me, “No Action” on an issue is a sign of cowardice. It’s a sign they aren’t willing to make a commitment. I decided my litmus test for a candidate would be where they stand on Birthright Citizenship.
To be clear, the purpose of the 14th Amendment was so that former slaves would be considered U.S. citizens. Ann Coulter has written extensively on this, and VDARE.com published Weigh Anchor! Enforce the Citizenship Clause in 2001, explaining it.
When I was on the job with the Border Patrol, I encountered illegal aliens coming in pregnant with the express purpose of giving birth, to get both American citizenship and welfare.
At one point during the Trump administration I was in El Paso and CBP sent back about seven pregnant women as part of the Remain in Mexico program. Far Leftist Representative Veronica Escobar was on the phone badgering CBP brass about letting them back in and letting them stay. So, they were let back in, but not before at least one of the Central Americans gave birth in Mexico.
The Mexican governor of Baja California has given birth in the United States not once, but twice, so that her kids have dual nationality.
Baja California governor criticized for giving birth in California, not Mexico [by Salvador Rivera, KTLA, January 18, 2022]
Russians on visas come into Florida to give birth. Wealthy Chinese do the same thing in California.
So I recently saw a post on GAB where Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was being interviewed by the cast of Timcast at the Libertarian conference.
He was asked a question on where he stood on birthright citizenship. (Minute 1:56:05 of the video)
Here’s the short version:
RFK obviously has given no thought to Birthright Citizenship abolition, and to the extent he has, opposes it pic.twitter.com/FgrQ6ljsIB
— VDARE (@vdare) May 26, 2024
QUESTION: I don’t want to cut you off but I do want to ask a question about immigration. If elected would you end Birthright citizenship?
RFK, JR.: Birthright citizenship? I don’t know, I would have to look at that. I mean I think there’s a — isn’t there a constitutional provision that said if you’re born in this country that you’re a citizen? Is that what you’re talking about?
TIM POOL: We read it the Fourteenth Amendment all all [sic] persons born in United States but the argument is that it says…
RFK, JR.: So you’re talking about amending the US Constitution?
QUESTIONER: Yeah I think birth right citizenship incentivizes illegal immigration
TIM POOL: Wait, wait real quick that there…
RFK, JR.: I would shut down the Border, let me put it that way.
TIM POOL: There you go! The argument is that the Fourteenth Amendment says if you’re…
RFK, JR.: I’ll tell you exactly how…
TIM POOL: The amendment says if you’re born here and subject to our jurisdiction you’re a citizen some have argued “You are, you’re here” others have argued no you’re a foreign National but, uh, I digress — what’s your border plan?
So RFK Jr. said, in effect, that he hadn’t given it much thought, but believed it was in the Constitution. Unfortunately, the interview was coming to a close, so they didn’t pin him down on the issue. The fact that he hadn’t given the subject much thought tells me that he hasn’t thought much about actual immigration enforcement. Being able to drop a baby, go on WIC (which the baby is entitled to, even if the mother isn’t) and get Section 8 housing (same) is a significant draw for a whole lotta illegal aliens. Plus, it makes them much harder to deport.
In theory, an illegal alien child needs to turn 21 before they can petition for their parents to come to the United States. However, what are laws to Immigration Judges? They simply cancel the deportation for humanitarian reasons. See Will Having U.S. Citizen Children Prevent Deportation of Undocumented Immigrant?.
It’s actually very rare for an illegal alien parent to be deported once they plop out a child. If RFK had really studied immigration policy, this misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment would have hit him smack in the eyes.
“Infrastructure, policy, and personnel” is his solution. More wall, remain in Mexico policy (Migrant Protection Protocols, MPP), no more catch and release, more Border Patrol personnel, and more “asylum court judges.” He’s actually advancing many of Trump’s policies; however, Immigration Judges are often such far Leftists that they aggravate the situation, not improve it.
He also wants to give everyone a passport card administered by the U.S. Postal Service and the Department of State. Basically, a universal ID, which is kind of odd to say at the Libertarian National Convention. Leftists never consider the downside of their plans, and how there would have to be, first, significant protections against fraud.
Separately, I was watching Tucker Carlson interview Erik Prince of Blackwater fame.
In speaking about our government killing American citizens overseas with drones, at minute 1:18:38, Prince says, “There are a lot of people that are considered American citizens that probably shouldn’t be considered American citizens.” The one in particular he was probably referring to was Anwar Nasser Abdulla al-Awlaki (probably not a member of the Mayflower Society), a Muslim terrorist associated with Al Qaeda, who was droned by the Obama Administration in 2011..
Born to Yemeni parents in New Mexico, they moved back to Yemen when Anwar was seven. American, my buttocks.
See
I’ve told the story before about how I was talking to a Diplomatic Security Special Agent. He had been in Mali when some unrest occurred in the hinterland. He was tasked with making a list of U.S. citizens living in rural Mali. I asked him incredulously, “There are Americans living in rural Mali?” He responded, “Well, they are not what you or I would consider Americans, but they are on paper.”
Some of those are people like al-Awlaki, whose parents gave birth to them in the States, and made sure to take their birth certificates with them when they went home. Now the U.S. is “responsible” for them — all because of Birthright Citizenship.
The author is retired from the Border Patrol.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.