Anchor Babies?

My pastor's daughter was an immigration lawyer (she's now an assistant attorney general) and he tells me that there is no law granting automatic citizenship for those born on US soil. They have a right, when they turn 18, to request citizenship without having to take the test and (he thought) the oath if they were raised in the US and educated in US schools. If someone is in this country illegally and is faced with deportation, a child born in the US is not a legal consideration for preventing deportation -- although there are some political groanings about that. However, a legal resident who has a child born in this country who requests more permanent status (up to and including citizenship) is given more consideration of their request due to that child.

I'll use our Korean pastors as example. All entered the country legally. The previous Korean pastor had no children born in this country and, for some reason that he never could get anyone in the government to explain, could not get a green card. Thus he remained a "volunteer" (the congregation compensated him with rent, a car, etc.) and could only remain in this country in that status for (I think it was) four years. Oddly, enough, his wife could get a green card. Our current Korean pastor's status is much less problematic because his youngest daughter was born in the US while he was at seminary in Oakland. When he accepted the pastorship of our Korean mission, he was able to easily convert his student visa to a green card. It is a measure of how messed up the INS is that the green card was easily issued, but it took them forever to process the paperwork when they asked for citizenship. I am told that their oldest daughter (born in Korea) may apply for citizenship when she turns 18 and, provided she doesn't break any laws between now and then, she will be granted it without question. Their youngest daughter simply requests to claim her citizenship when she turns 18 and it will be granted.

The anchor baby is a popular myth and the political goal of some is that "anchor babies" would prevent the deportation of illegal immigrants, but so far, the legal protection is not there. The protections I'm discussing are only in place for the children of LEGAL residents and, should they break the law or allow their visas to lapse, they are no longer legal and are subject to deportation right along with their US born children.