Birth Right to Children of Immigrants and the Economic

Contributions of Immigrant Families.

• Arizona State Senator (R-18) Russell Pearce has proposed legislation that would refuse a birth certificate to any child without at least one parent who could prove legal status.

• Recent polls shows that 76% of Republicans think illegal immigrants whose children are born inthe U.S. should not receive citizenship.

• H.R. 1940: Birthright Citizenship Act of 2007 was introduced by the Republican Congressman Nathan Deal from Georgia to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act.

• Ending birth right citizenship creates a two-tiered system of Americans and would increase the number of people living and working in the shadows.

• Estimates show that 73 percent of undocumented immigrants’ children are American-born.

• The Supreme Court has consistently upheld birthright citizenship.

• U.S. Vs. Wong Kim Ark is the landmark case whereby the Supreme Court recognized a US-born son of Chinese immigrants as an American citizen.

• The children in undocumented immigrant households tend to be under the age of six and born in the United States.

• Immigrants who cannot legally obtain a Social Security number but still owe income taxes are issued a nine a nine-digit Individual Tax Identification Number through which millions of tax dollars are collected.

• A U.S. citizen worker married to a documented immigrant with a valid ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number) but no SSN, cannot receive any benefits even if the couple has one or more U.S. citizen qualifying children.

• U.S.-born children of unauthorized immigrants were about twice as likely not to have health insurance in 2008 three times as likely as those born to U.S.-born parents.

• Immigrant households contributed $133 billion dollars to the government in direct taxes to federal, state, and local governments in 1997

References

Arizona’s next ugly battle: citizenship for immigrant children

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2010/0707/Arizona-s-next-ugly-battle-citizenship-forimmigrant-

children/(page)/2 By Raul A. Reyes July 7, 2010

Arizona's Next Immigration Target: Children of Illegals

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1996064,00.html

Adam Klawonn, Jun. 11, 2010

H.R. 1940: Birthright Citizenship Act of 2007

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-1940

The Tax Treatment of Undocumented Immigrants and Their Families

http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/llr/vol9/lipman.php#Heading169

NCSL- Demographic Resources and Statistics on U.S. Immigration

http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=13148

A Quick Look at U.S. Immigrants: Demographics, Workforce, and Asset-Building

http://www.ncsl.org/Default.aspx?TabId=13146

Immigration

http://www.ncsl.org/Default.aspx?TabID=756&tabs=951,119,851#951

http://www.iiboston.org/resources/faq.htm

A project of CADENA -DREAM Act advocacy group

Research by Karen Coad, MASJHR candidate.

For more information contact Carmen Cornejo

(480) 324-6378

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