The Ugliness of Racism

“According to the 14th Amendment, the primary requirements for U.S. citizenship are dependent on total allegiance to America, not mere physical geography,” said Pennsylvania Republican State Rep. Daryl Metcalf in a statement. “The purpose of this model legislation is to restore the original intent of the 14th Amendment, which is currently being misapplied and is encouraging illegal aliens to cross and cost American taxpayers $113 billion annually, or nearly $1,117 yearly per individual taxpayer.” 



Throughout history, new groups of immigrants
have always been racially targeted.



This piece of legislation, as well as a second racist anti-immigration bill from Arizona is blatantly attacking American freedoms that have been in our constitution for decades.

The lawmakers who are trying to deny citizenship to children of illegal immigrants believe the legislation will stand up against constitutional scrutiny. Former acting Solicitor General Walter Dellinger disagrees, “This issue has been raised and litigated in our history in every instance in a racial context. That is why we wanted to have a simple, clear, definitive constitutional rule. There’s absolutely no indication the Supreme Court would have any interest in reexamining it. It would get tossed out of court early.”

They are arguing that this important segment of the 14th Amendment should be taken out because they fear illegal immigrants are "abusing" it by having their children born in the US to ensure their US citizenship. I'm going to make an awkward comparison, this reminds me of the federal government suspending habeas corpus in order to find terrorists (or rather, imprison and torture them for extended lengths of time because they don't have evidence). Arguments are that we should suspend constitutional rights in the name of safety. These racist legislators are arguing we should suspend constitutional rights (demolish, actually) in the name of saving.. money? Neither case is acceptable, because we have constitutional rights for a reason. We cannot completely ignore constitutional rights whenever the state thinks it is fitting. The reason why we have the constitution and the Bill of Rights is to protect ourselves from the state. If we allow them to ignore these rules in one or two cases, then the rules will end up being ignored completely.

I had the opportunity to attend a conference this weekend about refugees from countries such as Bosnia, Sudan, Guatemala, and Thailand. The woman from Bosnia said her family was very grateful that their youngest son was born in the U.S. I wonder if these politicians acknowledge that people such as her, who were forced to flee their country to see refuge, will be impacted by the bill. Probably not, because it is pure racism from people who believe our country is under attack from Mexican Immigrants. Pure racism. I looked around the room at the conference, and saw people of an array of diverse backgrounds; races, religions, cultures, and ethnicities.

I thought it was beautiful. Diversity truly is beautiful. And America is different from most other countries because of it. Yet, this diversity is seen as a threat. It is seen as something that must be stopped. I don't understand how they don't see the beauty in it as I do.