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Politics & The Nation
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SUNDAY, AUGUST 8, 2010 Push to revise 14th Amendment not gaining steam
Opponents of birthright citizenship not on board for uphill political fight
by Sandhya Somashekhar South Carolina Sen. Lindsey O.
Graham (R) says America faces a new and growing foreign threat: illegal immigrants and tourists who come to here for the express purpose of giving birth so their children obtain citizenship. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and other top Republicans quickly jumped on the issue and called for hearings. The senators said their con- cerns arose from recent reports of a burgeoning “birth tourism” in- dustry, which helps expectant mothers abroad travel to the United States to deliver their ba- bies. They also said that birth- right citizenship, which is grant- ed by the 14th Amendment of the
the issued was raised this year, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as well as Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said they, too, would be open to hearings. On Fox News late last month,
ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said he is concerned that birthright citizenship has become a magnet for illegal immigration.
Constitution, could provide an in- centive for people to enter the country illegally. The sudden support cheered anti-immigration hard-liners who have been pushing to do
away with birthright citizenship for years, but the senators face a problem: Few others want to take up the issue, and it is almost as- suredly going nowhere. Even some of the most vocal
ROSS D. FRANKLIN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who faces a reelection battle this year, has called for hearings on the “birth tourism” issue.
critics of the country’s permissive immigration laws are skeptical of the efforts, which they say are particularly emotionally charged because they affect children and families.
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“We don’t think that it is worth the political capital to initiate a debate on this issue,” said Jon Feere, legal policy analyst for the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that backs stricter im- migration policies. “The energy spent on ending birthright citi- zenship might be better spent re- ducing illegal immigration through a commitment to immi- gration law enforcement gener- ally. If illegal immigration is end- ed, the problem of birthright citi- zenship for children of illegal aliens disappears.” Nevertheless, raising the issue could prove beneficial to Graham and McCain, both of whom have rocky relationships with many of the conservatives whose support they’ll need to stay in office. Graham has fallen out of favor with many in his party for work- ing with Democrats on a host of issues, including immigration. He was just one of five Republicans to vote last week to confirm Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court, a decision that further raises the possibility that he will face a seri- ous primary challenge when his term runs out in four years. McCain’s concern is more im-
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mediate — he faces voters in a pri- mary later this month and is on the ballot again in November. “My organization would say there should be a change on the horizon, but not in the way Lind- sey Graham is talking about it,” said Rosemary Jenks, director of governmental relations for the nonprofit NumbersUSA, the lead- ing group opposed to birthright citizenship. “I do think it is politi- cal. . . . What we need is a serious discussion of the actual issues, not a lot of political ploys. ” Bills related to birthright citi- zenship have been introduced in Congress every year since the 1990s, experts say. They almost never gain traction and rarely at- tract high-profile supporters such as Graham and McCain. When
Graham said he might propose a constitutional amendment be- cause birthright citizenship has become a magnet for illegal im- migration. “To have a child in America, they cross the border, go to the emergency room, have a child and that child is automat- ically an American citizen,” he told host Greta Van Susteren. “That shouldn’t be the case. That attracts people here for all the wrong reasons.”
Amending the Constitution is a
difficult task. Some who support curbing birthright citizenship ar- gue that the 14th Amendment has been misinterpreted and that the issue could be dealt with more simply by passing a law or through the courts. Groups that study immigration trends say the number of “birth tourists” to the United States is relatively small, perhaps a few thousand a year. The number of U.S. citizens born to illegal-im- migrant parents is believed to be much higher; there were about 4million such children living in the United States in 2008, accord- ing to the Pew Hispanic Center. “This is a symptom of the larg- er problem of illegal immigration in this country,” Jenks said. “It is an important issue. This is part of our identity as a nation, and we’re the only industrialized country that has not changed its birth- right citizenship laws.” More troubling to some is that illegal immigrants often further root themselves in U.S. society by having American children, their plight often winning the sympa- thy of the public. In one widely publicized case in 2007, a Mexi- can woman barricaded herself and her 8-year-old son, who was a U.S. citizen, inside a Chicago church in an unsuccessful at- tempt to avoid deportation. Immigrant rights advocates say
birthright citizenship is benefi- cial to society because it promotes assimilation, and that revoking that right could create genera- tions of residents who reside in the country illegally. “It’s puzzling that they would propose this, because it would add to the undocumented popu- lation,” said Bill O. Hing, a profes- sor at the University of San Fran- cisco School of Law who has rep- resented undocumented immigrants. “I really think they lose sight of who these children are and what they become. . . . They very quickly become assimi- lated.”
somashekhars@washpost.com
NASA attempt to fix cooling system fails Experiments at space
station halted because of broken pump
By Marcia Dunn
cape canaveral, fla. — A pair of NASA astronauts ventured outside the International Space Station on Saturday to repair a faulty cooling system but ran out of time before they could remove a pump that broke last weekend. Douglas Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson were attempting to swap in a spare to replace the faulty ammonia coolant pump. The job was considered so diffi- cult — one of the most challeng- ing repairs ever attempted at the orbiting lab — that NASA planned two spacewalks, the first on Saturday. So little progress was made that NASA later said a third would be necessary. Wheelock and Caldwell Dyson disconnected three pressurized ammonia hoses from the dis- abled pump but were unable to remove the last hose. “Wow. That thing is not budg-
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ing,” Wheelock told Mission Con- trol at one point. Lagging well behind schedule, Wheelock finally succeeded in dislodging the balky line by bang- ing a jammed button with a spe- cial tool. Mission Control erupted in ap- plause. “Awesome,” Mission Con- trol radioed up. But the exuberance was damp- ened by a stream of escaping am- monia that resembled tiny snow- flakes. “It’s got a pretty good snowstorm there,” Wheelock re- ported. The astronauts managed to stop the leak when they plugged the troublesome connector back in. There was time for little else as
the spacewalk neared the seven- hour mark. They headed back to the air lock, where they had to go through decontamination pro- cedures, stretching the space- walk to eight hours and three minutes. NASA said it was the sixth-longest spacewalk ever. The ammonia pump shut down last weekend and knocked out half of the space station’s cooling system. The pump is sup- posed to push ammonia coolant through the lines on the right side of the complex and prevent equipment from overheating. To cope with the failure, the six- person crew had to turn off all unnecessary equipment and halt science experiments. The cooling line on the left side
— unaffected by the trouble — has had to manage everything. Engineers worked nonstop over the past week to come up with the emergency repair plan. Astronauts in Houston rehearsed the spacewalk while submerged in NASA’s huge training pool. Although space station manag- ers knew an ammonia pump would fail one day, they did not expect it to happen so soon in the 12-year life of the complex. The broken pump had been in opera- tion since 2006.
Each pump is about the size of
a bathtub and weighs 780 pounds. Astronauts will attempt to install the new pump, an on- board spare, on the second space- walk, which is planned for Wednesday. NASA said the breakdown is se- rious but has not endangered the crew, and the one functional cool- ing loop has kept the space sta- tion stable. Additional break- downs could leave the station in a precarious situation, however, and that’s why managers wanted to get the broken line working again as soon as possible. — Associated Press
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