A key provision of the proposal also would require hospitals to check the citizenship of the parents of newborns.
Della A. Montgomery filed the initiative, "Birthright Citizenship Alignment Act," with the Secretary of State's Office on Friday. The proposal appears to be aimed at illegal immigration; she did not immediately return a call for comment.
"The State of Arizona shall register no birth certificate or record
issued to any child born to parents who are subject to a foreign Power, who
do not owe direct and immediate allegiance to the United States," states
language on the initiative application.
As elected officials grapple with ways to solve illegal immigration, some
Republican members of Congress have proposed ending the policy of birthright
citizenship, which is rooted in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
They believe birthright citizenship encourages illegal immigration and
jeopardizes national security.
Proposals in Congress, though, have gone nowhere, lacking votes and the
political will to amend the Constitution.
Those who favor ending birthright citizenship believe they can use
legislation to accomplish their goal without amending the Constitution. Rep.
Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, a leading legislative critic of illegal immigration,
says he plans similar but separate legislation to take the issue to voters.
The constitutional provision was enacted after the Civil War and was meant
to apply to former slaves, Pearce said. "It has nothing to do with aliens,"
he said.
Most legal experts believe ending birthright citizenship would require a
change to the Constitution, and it would be difficult to muster enough
support to do so, said Evelyn Cruz, director of the Immigration Law & Policy
Clinic at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law.
"It's understandable that the states have a desire to deal with the issue,
but they cannot bypass federalism," Cruz said. "If they are born in the
United States, they are United States citizens, period, and every U.S.
citizen has the right to their birth certificate."
Supporters of the proposed initiative would need to submit signatures of at
least 153,365 voters by July 3 to qualify the measure for the ballot, while
legislative approval alone would be enough to put a referendum being drafted
by Pearce on the ballot.
The measure would generally ban issuance of birth certificates to children
of non-citizens. But it also would permit a certificate to be issued to a
child whose mother is a foreign citizen and whose father is a U.S. citizen
if the father formally acknowledges parentage and agrees in writing to
financially support the child until adulthood.
The initiative also would require that hospitals submit "certified
documentation of the parents' United States legal status" to local
registrars with birth certificates for newborns. Cruz said that hospitals
could run into privacy issues by checking the citizenship of parents. The
court would have to examine whether a person's right to protect their
identity outweighs the right of the state to collect such information, she
said.
Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association officials did not immediately
return a call for comment.
Pearce said he has no involvement with the initiative campaign other than to
twice speak on the phone with the applicant, Della Montgomery, to review her
proposed wording.
"I helped tweak it a little bit," he said. "What she gave me looked pretty
good."
It doesn't sound good to Roberto Reveles, a longtime activist and immediate
past president of grassroots group Somos America, best known for organizing
the massive pro-immigration demonstrations last year.
"We have set loose a campaign of hysteria that is extremist beyond my
comprehension," he said. "The moral leadership of this state has failed to
confront these daily attacks against the humanity of people who are caught
up in the broken-down system of immigration."
Includes information from Associated Press reporter Paul Davenport. Reach
the reporter at 602-444-4712 or yvonne
.wingett@arizonarepublic.com.