By EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer
North County Times (California)
April 22, 2009
A statewide initiative now being circulated would create two kinds of birth certificates: one for the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants and one for everyone else.
The measure also would deny publicly funded health benefits to the children of illegal immigrants.
Opponents say that would be discriminatory and unconstitutional.
The initiative, drafted by anti-illegal immigration activists, was endorsed by several former officials, including former state Sen. Bill Morrow, R-Oceanside, and former U.S. Attorney Peter Nunez.
A spokesman for Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, said the congressman is supportive of the effort, but has not officially endorsed the initiative.
By taking aim at the children of illegal immigrants, the initiative raises the specter of the controversial Proposition 187, a 1994 measure that would have denied a public education to illegal immigrant children. It was approved by the state's voters, but declared largely unconstitutional in federal court.
The new initiative takes a slightly different approach by focusing on children whose parents are undocumented.
Nunez, now a professor at the University of San Diego, said Monday that the initiative was needed to help deter illegal immigrants from coming to the U.S.
"Anything we can do to make it clear who is here legally and who is here illegally hopefully will discourage people from coming," Nunez said.
But those who argue that illegal immigrants should be given a chance to become legal residents say the initiative would be overly intrusive.
"I can't think of anything more Orwellian," said Dan Siciliano, a research fellow with the Immigration Policy Center, an immigration policy research organization that favors creating paths for illegal immigrants to become legal residents.
Supporters must collect 433,971 valid signatures from registered voters by Sept. 8 to put the initiative on the June 2010 ballot, according to the secretary of state.
If approved by voters, the initiative would require that parents show proof of legal residency before receiving their child's birth certificate.
Those who cannot would have to pay an additional $75 fee to the county registrar, provide employment information, the mother's fingerprints and three passport-type photos of the mother. The county registrar would be required to report the information to the Department of Homeland Security.
Illegal immigrant parents would not receive a standard birth certificate for their U.S.-born children. They would receive a "Birth to Foreign Parents document," according to the Taxpayer Revolution group's Web site, the organization that sponsored the initiative.
Kristina Campbell is a staff attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, a Latino rights group. She said treating children differently on the basis of their parents' immigration status is a violation of the equal-protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.
"It's creating different kinds of classes of people," Campbell said. "There's not different kinds of citizenships in this country."
http://www.northcountytimes.com/articles/2009/04/15/news/sandiego/z3a7cb4466b4507ce882575970077d470.txt
