Editorial: GOP plank is all warped

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 | 7:06 a.m.

The Nevada Republican Party embarrassed itself during its state convention in Mesquite over the weekend by approving a plank that would deny American citizenship to children born in the United States if their parents lacked legal status.

This is a discredited idea whose main proponent is Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga., sponsor of a bill that would bring a new interpretation to the 14th Amendment. Ratified in 1868, the amendment states: "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."

Deal, Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., and other backers of extreme immigration legislation say people who crossed the border illegally are not "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States and therefore neither are their children. Following through on that absurd logic, they claim that children born to undocumented immigrants should not be granted automatic citizenship.

They miss, of course, the first two words of the amendment - "All persons." They also miss that the jurisdiction clause was written to exclude children of diplomats or children of foreign occupiers. All other children born in the United States have a constitutional right to American citizenship.

On a practical level, they also miss the fact that undocumented immigrants are indeed subject to U.S. jurisdiction. Just ask Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz. He and members of his civilian posse are out rounding up immigrants who lack proof of citizenship and throwing them in jail. Sounds like jurisdiction to us.

And, more reasonably, the U.S. Border Patrol is exercising jurisdiction every day, as are American courts and law enforcement agencies at all levels in the event of criminal acts by undocumented immigrants. So, too, are hospitals, schools and social agencies exercising jurisdiction during times of need for illegal immigrants.

The plank adopted by the Republicans is nothing but an ugly attempt to dehumanize people. We agree with UNLV law professor Raquel Aldana, who told the Las Vegas Sun that children of illegal immigrants, if denied citizenship here, could also be denied citizenship in their parents' country of origin. "You're creating a category of stateless people that goes against tradition and human rights," she said.

The Republican convention was woefully underattended. Just 135 Republicans from around the state participated, including only 38 of 1,900 eligible participants from Clark County. Lacking also was any leadership by the state's top Republican elected officials in heading off such a mean-spirited plank in the party's platform. Had the leaders been paying more attention, and had more rank-and-file members attended, maybe such a plank would have been rejected. We would like to think so, but we will never know.