asu in the news 02-06-08 to - ASU News - Arizona State University

ASU in the News
counted as illegal immigrants. They’re Americans by definition. Schools and hospitals do not track the
legal status of parents. Neither do state agencies in charge of government welfare and health care
programs for the poor. Generally, illegal immigrants do not qualify for public benefits such as medical
coverage under the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), or for general
economic assistance programs. The children, as Americans, do. Labor and delivery costs for illegal
immigrants are paid under a federal program to provide emergency medical treatment. People in the
program cannot prove they are citizens or legal U.S . residents, but AHCCCS does not take the extra
step to confirm they are in the country illegally, said Rainey Daye Holloway, spokeswoman for the
agency. Taxpayers spent about $87.9million to pay for the 18,103 births to undocumented parents in
Arizona covered under the program last fiscal year, which ended in June, according to an analysis
run by the agency in response to a Tribune inquiry. It cost an additional $101.7 million to provide one
year of medical care to those American children through AHCCCS, according to agency estimates.
For normal medical coverage under AHCCCS, the child born in the U.S . qualifies for any benefits
available to children of American citizens, Holloway said. The parents and their nonlegal children only
qualify for emergency medical treatment, she said. Liz Barker, spokeswoman for the Arizona
Department of Economic Security, said there is no way to track how much the state pays out in
economic assistance for American-born children of illegal immigrants. Only citizens and legal
immigrants who meet certain qualifications can qualify for economic benefits, Barker said. The legal
status of the child is verified, Barker said. The legal status of the parents, who are not applying for
benefits, is not, she said. LIMITED BENEFIT For Kimberly’s father, Hector, it was not the lure of
government benefits or the prospect of thwarting deportation that led to the decision to have three
children in the United States. ’A lot of people think immigrants have children because they want to
stay here forever,’ Hector said. ’No. I love my wife.’ Because of his fear of immigration authorities, the
Tribune agreed to protect the identity of Hector’s family as a condition of his agreeing to an interview.
Hector is a Guatemalan native who sneaked across the border at Nogales in 1993, he said. He has
worked since he got here, most recently washing cars. Though his wife has already been deported,
Hector remains, at least for now, until pending legal issues related to his immigration status are
resolved. Hector said English is the primary language for all three of his children ranging in age from
four to nine. They consider themselves Americans, not Guatemalans, he said, echoing Kimberly’s
sentiments about her heritage. ’They act more like Americans,’ Hector said. ’They make the oath to
the flag and really have their hearts in the United States more than Guatemala.’ The three children
were getting health care through AHCCCS, Hector said. Two have asthma and the youngest,
four-year-old Emerson, recently needed emergency surgery after his appendix ruptured, Hector said.
The family has not received any other public assistance, he said. Having three American children did
nothing to help their immigration case, Hector said. Nancy-Jo Merritt, an attorney handling
immigration cases, said the situation Hector and his family are in is typical. Having American-born
children carries no weight in deportation proceedings, Merritt said. There are limited circumstances in
which an immigration judge can block the deportation of illegal immigrants, such as having an
American child with severe medical problems, she said, noting that exemption is rarely granted.
Economic hardship does not qualify, Merritt said. Neither does the argument the child would receive a
better education here. ’The reason I hate the term ’anchor babies’ is that it sounds as though the
people that are here have done something sneaky,’ Merritt said. ’They just live their lives. They have
jobs. They get pregnant. They have children. And those children are of no benefit to them in terms of
their status until the children turn 21.’ When American-born children turn 21, they can sponsor their
parents for legal status in the U.S . ’JURISDICTION’ DISPUTE The presumption that all children born
in the U.S . are citizens, regardless of their parents’ legal status, is rooted in the 14th Amendment to
the Constitution, which was adopted in the post-Civil War era to ensure citizenship for blacks. ’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,’ is the language in the Amendment. It is the
phrase ’subject to the jurisdiction’ that is in dispute. The Supreme Court has not directly ruled on
whether the children of illegal immigrants are automatically American citizens if they are born in the
U.S ., said Peter Schuck, a Yale Law School professor who has researched the legislative history of
the 14th Amendment. The most recent guidance the court has given was 110 years ago, when it
ruled the child of legal Chinese immigrants born in San Francisco was an American by birth. But that
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