How many of you have “Anchor Babies” in your family background?

I increasingly dismiss a lot of what is called political correctness today. Maybe it’s that I’m just getting older and resistant to change, but I sometimes find validity in my argument. Until I tapped into US news last week, I had no idea that the term “anchor babies” was now considered an epithet, and even worse, used as an argument over semantics by our presidential candidates to avoid discussing other, more urgent, national issues. Since nobody here can come up with an alternative to this term, why not just co-opt it, make it into something positive. Through usage in proper context, give it the connotation I believe it deserves.

I wonder how many Americans citizens living in the States today came from anchor babies? I did. My father’s maternal grandmother was a Jew born in Baltimore in 1859. Her father and mother came from Russian stock, of the Ashkenazim. They fled the Tsarist pogroms – the attempt by the Russian government to eliminate the Jews from their lands—executed most efficiently by the brutal Cossacks, a formidable cavalry, expert at killing, that would ride through a shtetl shooting and putting Jews to the sword at random, loot it of any objects of value, then burn the village to the ground ensuring it would be erased forever from the earth. Cleansing, theyh called it. Through family connections, my great-great grandparents were smuggled into the States via Canada where my great-grandmother was born less than a year after their arrival in Maryland.

She married a young German gentile, a Catholic ship’s boiler maker who’d jumped ship in Montevideo in order to avoid Bismarck’s military draft for the Franco-Prussian War. He’d done a short stint in the Imperial infantry before becoming a merchant marine and had had enough of the military – and Bismarck’s voracious adventurism in places like Denmark and Schlesvig-Holstein. He got on with a ship to Baltimore and soon was employed as a boiler maker with the B&O Railroad. He married the Russian girl and because he was a gentile, she became persona non-grata with her family. Later when her children married Catholics, she was marginalized because of her ethnicity by most of her extended, new family. Her parents received American citizenship because that girl was born on US soil. He remained an illegal all his life from what I can determine. All their children were anchor babies.

He ended up owning one of the largest rock quarries on the Chesapeake. Many of the government building in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and most of the slate steps one sees attached to the stoops of the thousands of row houses in these cities came from his quarry. It was his good American progeny— seven sons and two daughters—who partied with the Washington elite of their day, drank shiploads of champagne and whiskey and gambled all their father’s hard-earned wealth away until the family were not able to weather the Great Depression without selling the quarries off for a song.

I consider as anchor babies the Kentuckians in my family history who settled in Texas to raise cotton and cattle while it was still a province of Mexico. If I dig, I’m positive that I will find other anchor babies in my family line. I’m very proud to come from these people. In the past, when my world has turned to shit, I remember them and their trials and it gives me faith that I can persevere because these extremely tough immigrants’ blood runs in mine and they would consider many of my troubles trivial compared to the challenges they had faced.

I’m extremely proud to be the progeny of anchor babies. I think those of us who are should be as well and should consider it a badge of honor as I do. They alternative is to allow this term to be relegated to that vast cache of epithets available to the bigots of this world. It think we should use it and use it often as a positive descriptive of those great illegals many of us come from. I wonder how many Americans that could be?

The only humans alive on your planet that are not descendants of “anchor babies” are African Natives.

As far as I know my family came over legally. I know my paternal grandfather came through Ellis Island. My maternal great grandparents I also know came to the country legally. I don’t know the story for my paternal grandmother’s side, but I’ve never heard any stories that they didn’t come legally.

@Espiritus_Corvus Your great great great grandmother (I think I have that right) was in America illegally? Were lines possibly more blurry during immigration at that time? I know the Mexican border was more blurry. People used to cross back and forth. I remember a politician about ten years ago from a border state saying parts of his family was here “illegally” and how commonplace it was for people to cross the border then. That legality wasn’t really a thought 100 years ago the way it is today regarding Mexicans.

Also, I think the 14th Amendment came to be right around the civil war. So, there wouldn’t be anchor babies before that time.

@JLeslie You’re right about porous borders. Getting across our borders before the late nineteenth century was a mainly a matter of feeding yourself, keeping yourself healthy during the trek, and having a city with a neighborhood of your own kind to quietly become established in. The northern border with Canada was very fluid at that time, especially the farther west you went. As you stated, crossing the Mexican border into the US was quite casual and who would know if a person decided to take work in Montana and not return? Who kept the records? How could they verify identification? Hell, people used business cards for ID’s. There was no photo ID’s. It was a conman’s dream.

If you wanted to become a different person, as recent as the late 1970’s, all you had to do was cross the Mississippi River and start over. If you wanted a new name and passport as recently as the advent of government computers, all you had to do was find a grave of a person of your gender and approximate birth year, write to the Department of Vital Statistics of the county where the deceased was born, include two bucks and a signed request for a new birth certificate. Then take the birth certificate and get a new social security card and driver’s license and go down to the federal building with all your new ID’s and apply for a new passport. Voila, a brand new you. You’ve changed everything but your fingerprints which will be taken and assigned to the new ID in your new country. Stay out of trouble and the new you might last forever. That’s how a lot of people who wanted to avoid the draft got out of the country and sometimes even established foreign citizenship under their new names during the Vietnam War. There was no lightning-quick cross referencing between the Social Security office in DC, the State Department, and the National Bureau of Vital Statistics in Baltimore. As long as you didn’t show up on the FBI’s Most Wanted List at the Post Office , you were home-free.

No computers, records were kept locally, no photography used in criminal record keeping, no aerial surveillance, no fast motorcars, no radio communications, no telephones, very little communication between state law officials, no feds to speak of, completely fluid borders between both our northern and southern international borders and very little policing of our ports compared to today. Jeezuz, I could make a damn good living in an environment like that. The northern border with Canada was very fluid at that time, especially the farther west you went. As you stated, the coming across the Mexican was quite casual and who could track a non-criminal to Montana where they possibly got agricultural or artisan work? There were no photo ID’s. If someone insisted on proof of identification, which was rare , you usually handed them your business or calling card.

Long before the 14th Amendment it was accepted by most Americans that any baby born in the US would be considered an American citizen long before the 14th amendment, the U.S. Constitution itself, and prior to the Revolutionary war. Birthright citizenship has been used to settle and exploit lands from ancient times. It was used to anchor families to sparsely inhabited provinces, colonies where the aboriginals were uncooperative, etc., etc. Birthright citizenship is not exclusive to the US. Between the time of Mexican independence and the Mexican American War, the Mexican law allowed for birthright citizenship, thus ensuring that the progeny of my ancestors who legally bought land in the Tejano province of Mexico would have all the rights of ownership due a citizen of Mexico.

“The common law by which all persons born within the King’s allegiance became subjects whatever were the situation of their parents, became the law of the colonies and so continued, while they were connected to the crown of Great Britain. It was thus the law of each and all of the states at the Declaration of Independence” – New York State Judge Sanford, 1844

One of the most important court cases concerning birthright citizenship that precluded the “XIV Amendment of 1868”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution was the New York State court case of Lynch v. Clarke and Lynch of 1844 “HERE”: http://tesibria.typepad.com/whats_your_evidence/Lynch_v_Clarke_1844_ocr.pdf is the legal description and analysis of the case in downloadable Pdf format) from the New York Legal Observer from 1845. “This is a recent comprehensive description of the case, the decision in favor of Ms. Lynch, and the rationale of the judge who made that decision”: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/08/20/1413731/-Birthright-Citizenship-The-case-of-Julia-Lynch-1844. This case was repeatedly referenced during the congressional arguments leading to the ratification of the XIV Amendment.

Ms. Lynch was born in NYC while her parents were visiting the US. She spent less than a year in the US before returning to her homeland of Ireland, never to return. Later, her American citizenship was put into question when her rightful inheritance was contested by the American branch of the Lynch family.

Deciding New York Judge Sandford stated in 1844:

“The Constitution of the United States, as well as those of all of the original thirteen colonies, pre-supposed the existence of common law and was founded upon its principals…” He went on to say that common law included birthright citizenship.

My paternal grandmother was one of nine kids born to German immigrants. They first went to Canada and had seven kids there, then the family moved to the US around the 1899.

So nine of her immediate family members were immigrants. I’m not sure if they all became citizens.

Not me – both sides of my family came over as immigrants – my mom’s side from Eastern Europe after being thrown out of Russia, and my dad’s side escaping from Nazi Germany.

But they all came through Ellis Island and did the whole refugee / immigration thing.

@Espiritus_Corvus So, I’d say you don’t have anchor babies in your family.

The countries of the Americas mostly have Jus Soli. Many of the countries outside of the Americas don’t. I think the US should seriously rethink the policy. When the world opens it’s borders and the majority of countries are developed and civilized then it won’t matter, but for now, and probably the next 50 years, we need to have a little better control of our borders and not give automatic citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants. IMO.

@Espiritus_Corvus As you stated, crossing the Mexican border into the US was quite casual Yeah, during the time of US expansion in the west, many didn’t cross the US border, but the border crossed them!

Nope. My daughters great grandparents on her dads side of the family immigrated from Scotland back in the Ellis Island days, 1880’s-90’s I think, and all gained citizenship. I don’t know much about my side of the families immigration, I think we have ancestors dating back to the Mayflower and other early Welsh immigrants but….I am a Daughter of the American revolution ( inactive ) so it was waaay back when. haha

I’m white so the term doesn’t apply to my ancestors that came here. It is hell of a lot easier to come here legally from Canada than it is from Mexico.

What does white have to do with it? Plus, Mexicans technically, and by our current American definitions for the census, are white, unless they are black, Asian, or consider themselves Native American. Probably, Native American is a reasonable race category for many Mexicans, but also many of them it isn’t.

Back 100 years ago there was plenty of prejudice against the Irish and Jews. Italians too dealt with it, and other nationalities. The thing is they came over the ocean to get here, so it was harder to sneak in. The countries that border us can run across the borders. Canada has an economy similar to America so they weren’t fleeing Canada so fast. Mexico was a third world country, with less industry, less guarantees of pay, and so America had more opportunity.

I just get a chuckle when Trump says Mexico is sending their worst. At least now he is focusing more on the criminals. I want the criminal element addressed too. In terms of who else comes here, well, we are a country built on receiving the tired, the poor, and huddled masses longing to be free. People need to remember that. Remember many of the people did not speak English, and many were not considered “white” at the time, who are now.

Mexicans are native Americans, @JLeslie, with some Spanish influence beginning in 1500. Prior to that they were only native Americans.

Well, my grandparents had 7 kids when they set sail for America, from Holland. Then they had 2 more after they got here. One was my Mom.
On a side note, Grampa came over a few months before Gramma. Gramma sailed with 7 kids under the age of 9, by her self. That blows my mind.

Nope. None. Puerto Ricans are considered Americans even if they are born in Puerto Rico. Anyone in our family who married an immigrant, married one that became a citizen or was on the way to becoming one. The rest just married American born citizens. Well with the exception of my B-I-L who married a Japanese woman but they live in Japan and he was in the military so his kids have dual citizenship. So on my husbands side and my side of the family, there are no, so called anchor babies.