http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4870
WA GOP: No Automatic Citizen****p for Kids Born to Illegals
Immigration; Posted on: 2008-06-06
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Numbers Don't Lie
http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2032
By Andrew Garber
Seattle Times staff re****ter
The state Republican Party adopted a platform Saturday that includes a
provision aimed at opposing automatic citizen****p for babies born in the
U.S.
to illegal immigrants.
"Immigration is an issue that a lot of our party activists feel strongly
about," state Republican Party Chairman Luke Esser said. "And it's
certainly a
very defensible position. It's not at all something that's based on race
concerns. It's a matter of what is citizen****p going to be based on."
State Attorney General Rob McKenna, one of the state's most prominent
Republicans, said he doesn't sup****t banning automatic citizen****p for
children born to illegal immigrants.
"We have more than 200 years of history in which children born in the U.S.
are
deemed U.S. citizens," said McKenna, before reading the platform language.
"What matters is where the children are born."
Not all delegates attending the convention sup****t the position, either.
"The Constitution says that if you're born in the United States you're a
U.S.
citizen," said Scott Workman, of Sequim. "I'm not willing to change the
Constitution. If we're going to let them in and they're going to have
babies
here, then they're U.S. citizens."
The plank containing the provision was adopted without discussion. It's
part
of a much broader party platform approved at the state GOP convention
Saturday
stating positions on issues ranging from national defense to health care
and
education.
The plank covering immigration and homeland security says, "We welcome
those
who wish to build a new and better life in America and Wa****ngton state
and to
recognize that the only price of such op****tunity is their willingness to
embrace our language, culture and legal system, beginning at our national
borders."
The provision goes on to say that legal immigration "can best be
facilitated
by a transparent, traceable and enforceable guest-worker program that does
not
include amnesty or birthright citizen****p and sanctuary cities."
Mathew Manweller, chairman of the platform committee, said the language in
the
provision is intended to oppose automatic citizen****p for children born to
illegal immigrants.
"We have no problem with them becoming citizens if they go through [the
legal
process] but not simply by virtue of birth," Manweller said.
Esser said the issue of birthright citizen****p is broader than just
illegal
immigration. For example, he said, "I think if you ask the average person,
'Should a couple vacationing in the United States who are citizens of
another
country have a child on U.S. soil, should that child be a U.S. citizen?',
that
doesn't sound reasonable."
Continue...
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2004450665_gop01m.html
News Source: seattletimes
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