[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 143 (Wednesday, October 22, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H8984-H8985]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   THE CITIZENSHIP REFORM ACT OF 1997

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Bilbray] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BILBRAY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address the Citizenship 
Reform Act of 1997. The Citizenship Reform Act of 1997 amends the 
Immigration and Naturalization Act to deny automatic citizenship to 
children born in the United States who were not born by parents who are 
legal resident aliens or permanent residents, or U.S. citizens.
  Now, Members may say there are not that many people out there who are 
born to citizens of tourists or illegal aliens, and it is not that big 
a deal. Mr. Speaker, let me clarify that this has become a big deal. In 
California alone, we have addressed this issue and seen this issue 
grow. Over 250,000 children of illegal aliens are now qualified in the 
county, in one county, of Los Angeles, over 250,000 qualify for 
benefits such as Medicare, AFDC, WIC, and SSI. In fact, two-thirds of 
the births in Los Angeles County, Mr. Speaker, in the public hospitals 
of Los Angeles County, are to parents who are illegal aliens.
  The fact is that the cost to the State of California alone is $500 
million for providing welfare and health benefits to the children of 
illegal aliens. Forty percent of all births in the State of California 
are children of illegal aliens.
  These costs are not just borne by the people of California, they are 
borne by everyone. I think it is an issue that we now have a 
responsibility to address. The fact is we have created a loophole and 
created a benefit for people who break our laws.
  I do not fault the mothers who come to the United States so their 
children can get automatic citizenship and get all these benefits. I do 
not fault them at all. They are only doing what is legal for them. Who 
I fault is Congress in Washington, DC, for having this huge loophole, 
this great encouragement for people to immigrate illegally.
  Just in Texas there has recently been a report coming out showing 
that birth certificates are being sold to Mexican nationals for 
children that were never even born in the United States. In fact, one 
midwife has sold over 3,800 phony birth certificates so children could

[[Page H8985]]

then qualify for welfare benefits and Social Security benefits.
  In fact, it is estimated that in one sting operation alone where 
there were 89 people arrested, over $400,000 of alleged fraud was 
committed under the guise of utilizing the automatic citizenship clause 
through phony certificates. The granting of automatic citizenship to 
children born in the United States has led to this kind of fraud. 
Regardless of the parents' status, we are rewarding people for 
violating our laws.
  We are talking about fairness here, too, Mr. Speaker, because how 
many people are waiting out there, 3,500,000, to immigrate legally? How 
many children are born to these 3,500,000 people who are playing by the 
rules? Do we give them automatic citizenship? No. We tell them, like we 
should be telling the children of illegal aliens, you have the right to 
apply for citizenship like anyone else, but we are not going to give 
you automatic citizenship.
  I think it is quite unfair that we tell one group of people that your 
children get automatic citizenship because you broke the law and then 
tell another group of people, 3,500,000, that you will not get this 
privilege because you did not break the law. Fairness tells us we need 
to take care of this problem. Thousands of legal immigrants are 
waiting, and many, many thousands of illegal aliens are getting 
rewarded.
  There may be those who say that H.R. 7 is unconstitutional. Mr. 
Speaker, the Supreme Court has never ruled on the issue of illegal 
aliens getting automatic citizenship for their children. They have 
ruled on legal aliens, and they have said that because legal aliens 
were allowed in this country and agreed to come to this country, they 
have the burdens of loyalty and obligations of service in the draft. 
With that obligation comes the inheritance for their children of 
automatic citizenship. Illegal aliens do not have that obligation, and 
thus cannot pass on a citizenship right to their children as legal 
immigrants can and U.S. citizens.
  Mr. Speaker, the status of H.R. 7 is we have 51 bipartisan sponsors. 
The hearing was held on June 25. We are looking forward to a markup in 
early November, and frankly, I would encourage every citizen in the 
United States and every legal resident to contact their Congressman and 
ask them to join in the Immigration Reform Act of 1997, and bring some 
logic and some fairness back into our immigration policy.
  Let us start rewarding people for playing by the rules and stop 
punishing them for obeying the laws.

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