AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Texas officials are debating how to deal with 60,000 babies born in the state annually to non-citizens but who are automatically granted U.S. citizenship.
Adopted in 1868 to block state laws preventing former slaves from becoming citizens, 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".
But some Republicans are pressing for changes to the amendment that would prevent automatic citizenship going to babies born to illegal immigrants, The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday.
State Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, said Republicans are using the births to generate an election issue, the report said.
But State Rep. Leo Tyler, R-Tyler, said: "They're violating our law, and we're giving their children the benefit of U.S. citizenship." Berman's 2009 bill in the Legislature would have challenged the birthright of immigrant children, but it died in committee. UPI
