GOP splits over child-citizenship plank

By J. Patrick Coolican

Tuesday, May 23, 2006 | 7:31 a.m.

Some key Republicans distanced themselves Monday from a state Republican Party platform plank passed over the weekend that would deny citizenship to children born in the United States to illegal immigrants.

Legal scholars called the proposal unconstitutional, and Hispanic advocates termed it a violation of human rights that would create a stateless class of new refugees.

At its state convention Saturday in Mesquite, Republicans passed - with little debate - an amendment to the party platform that reads: "We do not support citizenship for children born in the United States to illegal aliens, illegal residents or foreign visitors."

Robert Uithoven, a spokesman for Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Reno, the front-runner for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, condemned it: "Jim Gibbons adamantly opposes that suggestion. He doesn't believe we should change the laws in this country in a way that would punish innocent children who are caught up in this fight over immigration."

A White House spokesman said the administration opposed any plan to deny what's known as "birthright citizenship." President Bush's immigration reform plan would tighten the borders while creating a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

Proponents of the plan to block citizenship for children born here to illegal immigrants say it would be easier to solve the immigration problem if there were fewer mixed-status families - meaning families with some members here legally and others who are not. Currently, one in 10 children in America is part of a mixed-status family.

The disagreement further exposed the wide rift in the Republican Party between hard-liners who want to crack down on immigration, and Bush and other party leaders trying to craft a compromise. The party risks alienating part of its white, working-class base - which is outraged by illegal immigration - and Hispanics, who make up the fastest-growing demographic in America. Eighty percent of the children of America's 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants are native-born American citizens who will be able to vote in a decade or two.

Although Republicans have no obligation to support the party platform, the plank could force candidates off-message.

"My guess is, yeah, people in Clark County, running statewide, this is probably adding to their woes," said David Damore, a UNLV political scientist.

Paul Adams, chairman of the Nevada GOP, said he understood both sides of the debate but conceded he's concerned that the proposal could alienate Hispanics.

In addition to its explosive politics, the Republican platform plank could be legally problematic, say legal scholars.

The 14th Amendment says: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."

A key point of contention is the phrase, "subject to the jurisdiction thereof." Illegal immigrants aren't subject to jurisdiction here and so shouldn't be granted citizenship, said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

But David Thronson, an immigration law professor at UNLV's Boyd School of Law, said legal precedent dating to the 19th century holds that only children of diplomats or foreign occupiers are excluded from the citizenship offered by the 14th Amendment. (American Indians were also in that class, but were made citizens by a later statute.)

The distinction is key because if excluding children of illegal immigrants requires a constitutional amendment, analysts give it zero chance of passage.

Margaret Stock, a law professor at West Point, called the proposal "unworkable" and "not serious." She said it would require an immigration lawyer in every hospital to determine the citizenship status of every mother and father having a child. She also noted it would be a huge blow to military recruiting, which draws heavily on the ranks of children born to illegal immigrants.

Raquel Aldana, another UNLV law professor, posed the possibility of children born here who would be denied citizenship both in the United States and in their parents' countries of origin: "You're creating a category of stateless people that goes against tradition and human rights."

Sandy Steele, chairwoman of the Washoe County Republicans and a sponsor of the state Republican plank, called citizenship for the native-born children of illegal immigrants a "loophole" and accused people of coming here to have children so they could circumvent the nation's immigration laws.

According to federal law, a child can sponsor a parent for immigration benefits after the age of 21, Thronson said.

An advocate for Hispanic civil rights condemned the idea of denying citizenship to children. Michele Waslin, spokeswoman for the National Council of La Raza, called it a "mean-spirited nonsolution" that would create "this whole class of people born here, educated here, who don't have the same rights or, frankly, responsibilities. They wouldn't be second-class citizens. They'd be second-class noncitizens."