So a bunch of crazy legislators in Arizona and other states are going to try to pass laws restricting the issuing of birth certificates to illegal immigrants children. They claim that the 14th Amendments provision that “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” has been misinterpreted. They contend that they will be able to make a legal argument that babies born to illegal immigrants shouldn’t have the rights to be citizens.

Lets, for a moment put aside the fact that anchor babies don’t exist, as people can still be deported if their children are citizens. This is like opposing the DREAM act, it makes no sense to me except as a lens for intolerance.

“And we’re not being mean,” [Representative Duncan Hunter, Republican of California] told a Tea Party rally in Southern California. “We’re just saying it takes more than walking across the border to become an American citizen. It’s what’s in our souls.”

What does that even mean? Is the implication there that a child born to illegal immigrants or the immigrants themselves lack some particular element in their soul that allows them to be American? I assume other than a love of liberty, that element of the soul must also be a certain whiteness. I know that I am a crazy progressive, but am I the only one that thinks the entire immigration system was more in line with our values before the quota systems set up by the Immigration Acts of 1921 and 1924? Those acts were based in racism, and it is sad to me that some people in this country are still so backwards and shortsighted that they would prefer to attack people who want to be citizens rather than embrace them.

Why Hunter’s comments so enrage me is that his ancestors just walked across a border. They moved here once, and through luck, their progeny have ended up as United States Citizens. I am not sure what else he could possible want? How did his ancestors have some certain part of their souls that made them love America, but someone who walks across a desert and almost dies does not? If we were all required to take some sort of test on American history and the Constitution, half the tea party would fail, so I doubt he’d support that idea. So what? It is just something in our souls, I guess.

This also gets me back to the DREAM act. I cannot think of something more in line with our values: if you work hard and go to college or join the military then we will put you on the path to citizenship. That is the American dream. That is Horatio Alger, except that most of the boys in those stories did not do anything as upstanding as join the military or go to college. I cannot even conceive of a reliable counter-story that makes any sense.