Don't let the cuteness fool you; some Texas Republicans say terror babies of illegal immigrants become U.S. citizens who attack the homeland from within. Think Stock photo.
Some Texas Republicans suggesting that the 14th amendment to the U.S. constitution be repealed are calling children born in the U.S. by illegal immigrants “terror babies.” The 14th amendment grants U.S. citizenship to all persons born on American soil. Texas congressman Louie Gohmert and state representative Debbie Riddle said that pregnant illegal immigrants come to the U.S. and have babies on the taxpayer’s dime. Then they take their little U.S. citizens home to be trained as deadly sleeper agents, who return as an adults to attack from within.
The terror babies conspiracy
The terror babies conspiracy was revealed this week by Anderson Cooper on CNN. Texas Republicans Riddle and Gohmert claimed they got the information about the terror babies from conversations with “former FBI officials.” Gohmert used terror babies to argue the 14th Amendment should be changed. Riddle said foreign women are having babies in the U.S. “with the nefarious purpose of turning them into little terrorists, who will then come back to the U.S. and do us harm.”
When pressed by Cooper, neither could provide any evidence of the existence of terror babies. Riddle complained on camera that before the taping no one warned her that she would have to come up with actual facts during the interview.
U.S. laws make little terrorists unlikely
Current U.S. laws make the scenario for breeding terrorists unlikely, according to Think Progress. The process to obtain a tourist visa to the U.S. is rigorous. Applicants must provide evidence of the purpose of the trip, fingerprints and photographs, and undergo an interview by a visa officer at the U.S. Embassy. While there are immigrant women — documented and undocumented — who have babies in the U.S. who become American citizens, their purpose in the country is usually to work.
Anchor babies a slow boat to citizenship
The terror babies idea is an escalated perversion of the “anchor babies” talking point used by Republican senators who argue the 14th amendment needs to be rewritten to curb automatic “birthright citizenship.” However PolitiFact reports that having an anchor baby won’t put a Mexican or Middle Eastern mom on the fast track to become a U.S. citizen. It actually takes more than 30 years. Citizen children cannot sponsor their parents for citizenship until they turn 21. If the parents seeking sponsorship happen to be illegal immigrants, they must return home for 10 years before applying to re-enter the U.S.
FBI evidence a fabrication
After Gohmert and Riddle spun their terror babies horror story, CNN’s Cooper interviewed Tom Fuentes, who served as the FBI’s assistant director in the office of international operations from 2004 to 2008. Fuentes said there was never a credible report on terror babies. Elise Hu of the Texas Tribune made an open-records request for communication between Riddle’s office and former FBI agents. No such records exist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUA7obmYvPk
Realize that there are laws in place that protect certain basic national principles. Use your common sense – he appears to be using his! Our ancestors came here to this beautiful land so that we could be FREE. Free to believe what we wanted, to practice a faith or not practice any, to be of any nationality and be free to live and let live – to never feel shame for WHO we are or WHERE we came from. We EXIST – America EXISTS – for these reasons! Take a deep breath and don't let rumor mongers or fear mongers develop this culture of fear and hatred among us – please. I implore every American and every person of faith (or no faith) to promise to hit the SPAM BUTTON- regularly and faithfully! God (EVERYONE'S . . . ) Bless America! 3 of 3
PS: The National Day of Prayer does not mean, nor did it EVER mean Christian prayer – it was for people of ALL FAITHS to pray TOGETHER – TO CREATE UNITY – and look what fear has made it . . . mass forwards to "strike terror (there's that word again) into the hearts of every Christian". Isn't that just so SAD? For the love of God and Country – I beg every rational person to research all the crap they read BEFORE they forward it and/or believe it. Hold it up to the light first. Trust your President – there are enough safeguards in place via our/your great Constitution and the wise forethought of our Forefathers that prevent anything untoward from happening. 2 of 3
Please tell me that you have not lost your minds?! Do you not realize that a similar set of circumstances – poor economy and uncertainty and fear is exactly what Hitler used in Germany to turn a nation of normal citizens into a culture of fear, envy, hatred and then look what happened? I'm about to become an American citizen – I hope! (I'm Canadian & Christian before you go 'AHA!') and I cannot believe to what lengths some people are willing to go to feed off the fear of the citizens of this great country – AND the scary part is that instead of responding like the intelligent, educated people that we are – we 'forward' so much of this mass hysteria as if it were 'truth'. We believe in 'Terror Babies' – we believe that the National Day of Prayer is 'CANCELLED!' – It's NOT. 1 of 3
You make some good (liberal points) but …tell me what was your comment when after 911 we were told that there had be information warning of this attack? Not all that glitters is gold… and trillions of dollars of war and reconstruction in the Middle East later we are still losing too many of our troops to this horrid mess…. while we bend over backwards to try to make nice nice with everyone…. are you willing to put your child in the front line?
I am a military mom.
It just sounds all too ridiculous to me. Then again, crazy things happen every day, so we really can never be too certain.
There is no logical reason why other nations should feel they can require us to give their children citizenship. There is no logical reason why citizenship should not follow the citizenship of your parents.
Indeed. America is a nation of loopholes.