Speech #1100165019

Mr. Speaker. CBS News recently ran an expose on the growing phenomenon of illegal aliens entering the United States in order to give birth to a child. The segment shed some light on what has become an increasingly costly burden to the United States taxpayer. An estimated 300.000 children of illegal aliens are born in this country every year. largely because of a misguided policy of socalled "birthright citizenship." This peculiar policy confers U.S. citizenship on any child born here regardless of what country their parents are from or whether those parents are here in the United States legally. We are one of fewin fact. we may be the only country now that still provides for this particular kind of citizenship. And its based on a very strange sort of interpretation of the 14th amendment. one part of the 14th amendment in particular. We all recognize of course that when the 14th amendment was written there was no such thing as illegal immigration. Certainly. there could have been no reference to it in the amendment itself. And what we need to do. frankly. is to pass legislation in this House and in the Senate. and the President needs to sign it. outlawing this practice and this habit. really. that we have gotten into. which is more than anything else a phenomenon of custom more than it is of actual law or analysis of the legal system or the Constitution of the United States. We should pass legislation to outlaw it and let it be tested at the Supreme Court. It results not just in the benefit for a child who is born as a U.S. citizen. it also makes it easier for the parent of that anchor baby or the illegal alien to become a U.S. citizen through that child. The story on CBS focused on one woman who had crossed over the Rio Grande with her husband and two other children to give birth in the United States. She gave birth to a healthy 82 pound baby on American soil after American doctors performed a Csection. a procedure that carries a price tag of nearly $5.000. a bill that was sent to the American taxpayer. Joe Riley. the CEO of the McAllen Texas Medical Center near the TexasMexico border. said this sort of thing is quite typical. He told CBS news that he had seen "mothers about to give birth that walk up to the hospital still wet from swimming across the river in actual labor. dirty. wet. cold. here to have a child in the United States." Mr. Rileys hospital alone is forced to provide uncompensated care worth more than $200 million each to cover the cost of nearly the 3.000 illegal alien births that take place there annually. Even more startling. that equates to about 50 percent of all the births in that hospital. meaning doctors are delivering almost as many children for illegal aliens as they are for American mothers. In California alone. by the way. the cost for illegal alien health care. not just for the births of illegal alien children. but the cost of health care for illegal aliens is over $1 billion a year. one State. over $1 billion a year. With statistics like that. Mr. Speaker. it should come as no surprise that many American hospitals are on the verge of collapsesome. in fact. have gone that wayand that billions of taxpayer dollars are being squandered on illegal aliens that are taking advantage of the health care program. Its time we yank back the illegal alien welcome mat. eliminate perverse incentives for illegal immigration like birth right citizenship and taxpayer services for illegal aliens.