SALT LAKE CITY — Contending that children of illegal immigrants are a huge drain on taxpayer-funded services, state Rep. Paul Ray said Monday that he will ask the Utah Legislature next year to call for a constitutional amendment to repeal giving automatic citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil.
"We have to take away incentives to come to the U.S. illegally," Ray, R-Clearfield, said at a Capitol press conference. "It may not seem very compassionate. It may seem awfully hard-nosed. But at some point we need to draw a line in the sand and say illegal is illegal and we're not going to fund it anymore."
Ray's action comes after Gov. Gary Herbert last week also said he is leaning toward favoring a rewrite of the 14th amendment to repeal automatic birthright citizenship. It also comes as conservative Republicans are pushing a tough immigration enforcement law, similar to a controversial one passed in Arizona.
Meanwhile, Latino leaders said they see attempts to get rid of birthright citizenship, and other immigration legislation, as acts of racism.
"I think it is just another act of racism and a waste of time," said Frank Cordova, president of Centro Civico Mexicano and a longtime activist and leader. "What good is a resolution in the Legislature when Congress has to act to change that…? They are just showing another side of their racist attitude. They should be focusing on issues like education and jobs."
Cordova added that Ray's plans "won't play well" in the Latino community — even among those who are citizens or legal immigrants — because many view such resolutions as an attack on anyone who looks different.
"I am not a racist," Ray said. He added that such action is needed to prod Congress into fixing broken immigration laws, and to help focus on how much citizen children of illegal immigrants cost taxpayers.
Ray said a small example of that is the $63.5 million spent on citizen children of illegal immigrants in the last fiscal year for state-administered welfare and health programs — an amount that more than doubled in two years. Ray said the Legislative Fiscal Analyst's office compiled that information at his request from Department of Workforce Services data.
Ray said $38.7 million went for Food Stamps for such children last year; $15.9 million for Medicaid; $2.7 million for welfare; and $39,000 for child care; plus another $8 million or so in administration of those programs.
Illegal immigrants themselves do not qualify for such services (except for some emergency delivery of babies), but their U.S. children who are born here do.
"Those numbers are conservative and verifiable," he said. Ray added that larger costs such as educating those children and hospital emergency room write-offs for the undocumented were not included because no one currently tracks that. He said he may look at legislation to study such numbers.
Ray said he decided to ask for the data because he was challenged by some people at rallies to show how illegal immigrants and their children hurt the state. He said he was also prompted to seek it after a recent Pew Hispanic Center study said eight percent of all U.S. births are to illegal-immigrant parents.
Ray conceded that up to 80 percent of the $63.5 million in social services he listed come from the federal government. "But it is still taxpayer money," he said. "Our budgets are strapped. We can't continue to afford paying for people who are coming over here illegally."
Ray, who is chairman of the House Health and Human Services Committee, said, "It's been heart wrenching to cut services to our disabled community while being forced to fund welfare programs for those who are not here legally."
He added, "You have people that are coming over here just to have children born on our soil so that they can be able to use our system."
Ray said he will introduce a resolution, which has no force of law and is essentially a suggestion, calling for Congress to do away with "birthright citizenship" by passing a constitutional amendment.
Such amendments usually must be passed by two-thirds majorities in the U.S. House and Senate, and be ratified by three-fourths of the states' legislatures. Ray said similar resolutions are expected in numerous states.
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