Far be it from me to make any claims of being an expert on immigration. However, I do know this much, we cannot continue allowing the influx of illegal immigrants flooding into our country violating our laws and being rewarded for it.
It doesn’t take a Harvard graduate or a Rhodes scholar  to come to this conclusion. It does require a smidgen of common sense which seems to be in short supply in Washington D.C. and with most Democrats in particular. Unfortunately, we are still deliberating over what to do about it when it should have been dealt with years ago.
We have many other pressing issues to address created by this administration and the one prior to it. Ninety three million not working, American companies moving manufacturing facilities overseas, social security disability running out of funds next year due to being expanded beyond its capabilities in recent years, the national debt spiraling out of control, Medicaid sucking up resources at an alarming rate, health care costs and insurance premiums continuing to rise for those paying the bills after being told ObamaCare would lower cost for everyone, ISIS taking over the Middle East, Iran assured of a Nuke under the Obama agreement, North Korea, Russia and on and on and on. You name it, the country is in deep trouble and the politicians are fiddling while we crash and burn.
There are far too many domestic and religious freedom issues to even list here. Yet, the conversation and news media have zonked in on the issue of “anchor babies.” Yes, I am aware the term is politically incorrect or at least so far as the progressives are concerned. They are attempting to make it another one of those you dare not utter words.  You must ask yourself how much sillier can these people possibly get?
The claim for birthright of anyone born in this country is supposedly a right derived from the 14th amendment. It says, “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.”
According to my understanding of the origins of this amendment, it emerged from the Civil Rights Act of 1866 which protected the civil rights of former slaves brought here against their will or born here to slaves. The 14th Amendment was passed in 1868 to guarantee those citizenship rights in the Constitution. It would take a complete misinterpretation of the language to include anchor babies of illegals. The original intent of the amendment is crystal clear even to a novice like me.
“On every question of construction carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.” –Thomas Jefferson to William Johnson, 1823.
James G. Smith is a regular contributor to The Selma Times-Journal.