Editorial: “Anchor Baby” Is an Insult

SPANISH VERSION
There is nothing more derogatory than the term “anchor baby.”  It cynically assumes that, for undocumented families, having children is part of a Machiavellian plan to use their children as an “anchor” to stay in the U.S. and be spared from deportation. Anyone listening to the current immigration debate in the Republican presidential primary campaign would think that one of the main concerns in the U.S. is some sort of hoard of pregnant women waiting to cross the border to give birth.

It is true that immigrants come to this country searching for better opportunities for their families than the ones their native countries offer them. While U.S. citizenship has its advantages, it does not necessarily prevent parents from being deported, as many split families have already seen. There is also a growing underground business in places like Los Angeles, where wealthy Chinese families come to the U.S. to give birth to their babies so that they can enjoy the advantages granted to citizens ‒ such as access to higher education, ‒ only to return to their country afterwards. These situations are not the same and must be dealt with differently.

The term “anchor baby” was first uttered in the House of Representatives by the most recalcitrant Congress members ‒ such as Iowa’s Steve King, known for insulting undocumented people by comparing them to dogs and cattle, among other pejorative expressions ‒.  The idea to reform or reinterpret the 14^th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was born within the Congress’ conservative, anti-immigrant universe. The amendment establishes that all people born in the U.S. and under its jurisdiction are citizens.

King, Donald Trump and those who hop on their anti-immigrant train may argue about technicalities and pretend that there is no jurisdictional distinction between a diplomat and an undocumented person when it comes to having children in the U.S., but that is not the case. Changing this would require constitutional reform.

“Anchor babies” are an imaginary problem that exists in the heads and the words of demagogues. Using the term is offensive, and a less-harsh word ‒ as the one Jeb Bush excused himself for not knowing ‒ does not exist, simply because it is an insult and nothing less.