After the passing of the 14th amendment in the United States Constitution, Birthright Citizenship has been granted to all persons born on US soil, with the exception of American Samoa (an unincorporated US territory). Due to a portion of the US population's growing distaste towards immigration, a myth has sprung concerning undocumented immigrants having children in the US to avoid deportation or even acquire citizenship.
In the past few decades, the term "anchor baby" has become increasingly more prevalent amongst those advocating for the limitation of immigration.
An "anchor baby" is a derogatory social identifier that insinuates that a child born to undocumented parents in a country with Birthright Citizenship has the purpose of "anchoring" their parents into the country.
The term "anchor baby" appears to be a relatively innocent phrase to describe children born to undocumented parents, a situation that many Americans believe happens often.
The controversy comes in when you consider that the term “anchor baby” is dehumanizing because it comes from a prejudiced ideal that deems all undocumented immigrants as leeches who migrate into the United States to have a pathway to citizenship, thus allowing them to take advantage of programs like Welfare and Medicare.
This leads to immigrants, both documented and not, feeling misunderstood, stereotyped, and discriminated against (especially considering that all "anchor babies" are citizenships by law).
The notion that undocumented immigrants, in general, migrate to the US for public assistance benefits is faulty because “research suggests that the primary motivators of unauthorized immigration are jobs and family reunification...(Brown). The main reason many undocumented immigrants choose the US is due to the abundant amount of opportunities both in the job market and in education, as well as wanting to reunite with family members who have already made the move due to a multitude of reasons (religious persecution, tyranny, crime, etc.)
In addition to the motivations of immigrants being incorrect, the idea of an "anchor baby" is based on a misconception, considering "...it implies something the US law does not do: Offer residency citizenship to parents of children born in the US” (Phillips). Just because an undocumented immigrant has a child on United States soil, it does not exempt them from deportation or give them a pathway to citizenship. In most cases, parents would have to decide between leaving their children in US foster care or taking them back to their country of origin.
On the surface, the term “anchor baby,” while based on a misconception, seems relatively innocuous until you decipher the intent behind its usage. Some politicians utilize RDAs and racial dog whistles to encourage votes based on distaste against minority populations like immigrants. An RDA is defined as “…any statement that frames minorities as a threat to target audience resources, or demeans or denigrates them, either directly or through association with another stigmatized label…” (Brown). The term “anchor baby” is used mainly to convince native-born citizens that their way of life is being threatened by immigrants (specifically undocumented immigrants). This way of thinking explains why so many people have misconceptions about the benefits that undocumented immigrants qualify for (little to none, in reality).
An example of RDAs being used to influence voters would be when “several Republican candidates for the 2016 presidential election, including Ben Carson and Donald Trump, used anchor baby rhetoric prominently during their campaigns” (Foster). These politicians used the term “anchor baby” to compel voters into believing that by electing them, they would stop immigration, an apparent "threat to their livelihoods."
RDAs have been shown throughout history to be a way to disenfranchise minority groups (like immigrants) to influence legislation. It has been established that the term “anchor baby” is both a misconception and derogatory, but the phrase can also lead to legislation changes that specifically disadvantage undocumented immigrants. For instance, the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2021 was almost passed through Congress, and the act “…follows a closely related trajectory to the use of anchor baby in the media…” (Foster). It could be argued that the attempted passing of the BCA of 2021 was accelerated by anti-immigrant terms like “anchor baby.” These could be clarified even more when looking at the direct words of politicians supporting the BCA of 2021. Donald Trump (a big supporter of the BCA) went on live television to say, “'I don't think they [anchor babies] have American citizenship,’ he [Donald Trump] told political commentator Bill O'Reilly on Fox News in August 2015. ‘We have to start a process where we take back our country. Our country is going to hell'” (Mier). The term “anchor baby” was used to perpetuate the idea that immigrants are driving the US “to hell” and that immediate action is needed to prevent this disruption of how things “should go”.
The RDA "anchor baby" is a derogatory term that many have evaluated to have nefarious intentions behind its usage. By analyzing the controversy and examining its history, it can be concluded that the phrase is mainly used to discriminate and disenfranchise immigrants. By pointing out the way RDAs dehumanize special populations, the debates surrounding topics like immigration can become more productive and less hateful.