Dean Johnson Comments on ‘Anchor Babies' for +972 Blog
Dean Kevin R. Johnson commented on the legal realities regarding "anchor babies" -- children born in the United States to undocumented parents -- for an article in +972, a blog-based web magazine that is jointly owned by a group of Israeli journalists and bloggers.
The article debunks several misconceptions circulating in Israel regarding refugees and migrant workers, who are sometimes accused of "having children as an ‘insurance policy' against deportation,'" according to the article. Stories of "anchor babies" in the United States are introduced as a "very similar myth."
Dean Johnson points out that although children born in the U.S. to undocumented parents are U.S. citizens, they would have to wait until age 21 to sponsor their parents for citizenship, and that anyone found to be in the U.S. illegally would be barred from returning for 10 years. It is "not realistic or practical" to think that parents would have a child in the U.S. as a means of gaining citizenship 31 years later, he said.
Kevin R. Johnson is Dean and Mabie-Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law and Chicana/o studies at UC Davis School of Law. He is an internationally recognized scholar in the fields of immigration law and policy, refugee law, and civil rights.