Viciously racist Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce recently introduced a bill that would deny citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants. Supporters of the bill refer to these children using the offensive and xenophobic term “anchor babies.”
The proposed law is just the newest in a string of anti-immigrant measures. The infamous SB 1070 allows police to demand immigration papers from anyone they suspect of being undocumented, and another law banned ethnic studies courses in schools.
The bill directly violates Article 14 of the U.S. Constitution, passed as a result of the mass struggle against slavery, which grants citizenship to all people born in the United States. Even the anti-worker Supreme Court has upheld birthright citizenship many times.
The attacks against undocumented workers in Arizona and throughout the country are aimed at dividing the oppressed and all workers and continuing the super-exploitation of immigrants. To stand up to broader assaults by the capitalist class, all poor and working people need to be united in struggle.
