Okay, the drama has seriously started. Donald Trump, the convicted criminal POTUS, and his minions have elbowed their way into the main room. Ready or not, some of them would say, we’re here and we’re in charge !!
The exact meaning of that last statement, “we’re in charge”, will likely take the country through many trysts and convoluted turns, either for Trump’s full four-year term or some approximation of it, as many unexpected and unstaged things are sure to occur.
One thing surely looming is Trump’s promise to force immigration law to bend to his will. The sure signs of the upcoming clash to accomplish that are already appearing in the news. A principal coming attraction in that maelstrom is Trump’s —promised attempt (he has already signed an executive order in his first few days) to outlaw birth citizenship in the U.S. — that is, the 14th amendment guarantees that anyone born in the U.S. automatically becomes a U.S. citizen.
Trump has promised to terminate that privilege — called the anchor-baby problem — but has shown absolutely no expertise — including needed knowledge from any of his Cabinet appointees — in accomplishing that act. Congress, as currently arranged with a slight Republican advantage, will also provide him with virtually no help in accomplishing that task (he would need a 2/3 vote from both houses of Congress to override that section of the 14th amendment). Right now, the promised effort seems to be merely another windbag prognostication from him. If he does seriously attempt it, this column strongly predicts that any such attempt will fail and fail badly.
This so-called “anchor baby” problem (there are millions of such citizens) in the U.S. will outlive Mr. Trump. Immigrants—legal or otherwise—will still be able to simply give birth in the U.S., either in a hospital setting or in a field or barnyard, and still acquire automatic citizenship for their infants, and the Trump administration will not be able to do anything about it. Trump cannot stop immigrants giving birth on American soil, no matter how much he rails about it in his rallies.
The current system will continue to prevail. That means that U.S.-born children of immigrants cannot sponsor their parents to obtain a green card permitting the parents to stay in the U.S. until such children are at least 21 years of age or older. Such U.S. born children must be able to prove that they can financially support their parents once the parents are granted admission to the U.S. so that they don’t become a burden on the public.
“Anchor-baby” parents—but not the children— generally have to leave the U.S. for up to 10 years before they are allowed to return through a legal process. Even if eventually granted a green card, anchor-baby parents must wait for five years before they can apply for naturalization.
In reality, the so-called “anchor baby” problem in the U.S. is not really a big problem anyway. It has just been trumpeted as such. A bigger issue looming was signaled by Elon Musk’s strange Nazi-looking salute at a recent Trump rally. Musk (who really can legitimately claim legitimally to be an African American) was born and raised (through high school) in apartheid-era South Africa. The salute he gave at the end of a Trump speech looked like one learned from the Boers there. The Broederbond in the American government? Wow!
Professor David L. Horne is founder and executive director of PAPPEI, the Pan African Public Policy and Ethical Institute, which is a new 501(c)(3) pending community-based organization or non-governmental organization (NGO). It is the stepparent organization for the California Black Think Tank which still operates and which meets every fourth Friday.
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