Jeff’s touched on Sen. Lindsey Graham talk of having hearings on maybe changing the 14th Amendment to eliminate birthright citizenship as being simply political theater. Totally agree, but the issue of “anchor babies” in general highlights the banality and disingenuous nature of much of the immigration debate.

It’s certainly true that a U.S. citizen can file for certain of their relatives to obtain a green card and come legally live in the U.S. And of course, that does mean that such parents and siblings could eventually obtain U.S. citizenship themselves. A couple of important points that often get ignored along the way though:

• A U.S. citizen has be at least 21 years of age to file for their parents and siblings to come live here.

• Under current U.S. law, such an application for a citizen’s parents is considered immediately.

• Application for a sibling don’t have to be considered immediately. Rather Congress has set limits as to how many are allowed in each year. Currently being processed are applications filed before June 1, 2001 except for siblings from Mexico (January 1, 1994) and the Philippines (April 1, 1990).

• A citizen can’t apply for their uncle, aunt or cousins to immigrate to the U.S. Now it is possible that a child born in the U.S. with non-citizen parents could when he or she turns 21 petition for their parents, who get a green card, and five years later U.S. citizenship, and the parents then apply for their brother or sister (the child’s uncle or aunt). At current limits, said aunt or uncle might get a green card in, oh, 35 years (21 years + 5 years + 9 years) unless they’re Mexican (42 years) or Filipino (46 years).

• The above also assumes that these relatives are living abroad or are in the U.S. legally on a non-immigrant visa. If it’s a case of someone whose family came across the border without inspection, they can still apply for a green card for their parents (say) but the case would be adjudicated at a U.S. embassy or consulate abroad, and the beneficiary would very likely face a 10 year ban on admittance to the U.S. for their previous unlawful presence. (This also generally applies if a U.S. citizen marries a foreign citizen who entered the U.S. by sneaking over the border.)

• Family-based immigration petitions require sponsors.

• Non-citizen parents of minor U.S. citizens get deported all the time. To get around being deported on this ground requires a showing of extreme hardship to a U.S. citizen — and that’s difficult to establish.

“Anchor babies” are just the latest straw man in the immigration debate, nothing more, nothing less. Immigration is a complex topic, something a large percentage of people on both sides of the issue do not comprehend or refuse to acknowledge. And with that we risk garbage in, garbage out public policy.