Perhaps without knowing it. I believe that my colleague from California made a very prophetic comment in response to the gentleman from Georgia just a few minutes ago when the gentleman from Georgia raised some concerns that African Americans here in this country fear so much by this legislation when he said. "but blacks are born in this country. they get automatic citizenship." I say to the gentleman. he forgets that there are a lot of black Americans in this country who came to this country from Haiti. African countries. and are now American citizens but came as immigrants. And there are many. many. many Latino Americans who came from Latin American countries and Asian Americans who came from Asian countries who. when they first were here. could have been questioned about their citizenship. and still may be questioned about their citizenship because of their looks and because of the way they may speak. But let us not forget that there are Irish in this country. there are Italians in this country. there are Bulgarians in this country whom. on appearance. one may believe were born here and are entitled to automatic citizenship and automatic right to vote. but that may not be citizens. And by empowering these local officials. without any kind of guidance to decide they are going to check people. what we are doing is returning us to the days when we had poll taxes and the like. We are suppressing the vote. we are going to raise hurdles to participation. and we are trying to do it with a system that cannot work. because Social Security. the administration has said. a Social Security number has never been more than a way to tell people if they qualify for Social Security. not for anything else. The INS will say that their records cannot tell if someone is eligible to vote. only if someone has naturalized. So we are getting ready to embark on something which will deny American citizens who have the right to vote that opportunity. Mr.
Identified stereotypes
Questioning citizenship based on looks or how they speak.