Arizona one step closer to creating a "bag limit"

on "illegal aliens".

Now Arizona, seized of its egregious immigration law (requiring people to immediately produce "papers" on the demand of a police officer) has a new Republican bill under consideration. (Emphasis mine)

A new law under consideration in Arizona would deny birth certificates for children born in the US to illegal immigrants.

In a statement that would make an old Apartheid Afrikaner blush, one of the original sponsors of the current immigration law made the following noises:

State Representative John Kavanagh (R) argued that the law does not conflict with the Constitution, since the original drafters never intended the right of citizenship to be granted to children of illegal immigrants. "If you go back to the original intent of the drafters ... it was never intended to bestow citizenship upon (illegal) aliens," Kavanagh said. In addition to supporting the proposed law, Kavanagh also supported the controversial law that gave Arizona greater authority to find and deport illegal immigrants.

Hmmm. I guess one would have to read the pertinent part of the US Constitution to determine that. Let's see what a Canadian can make of it.

Let's see... read Preamble, Article 1, Article 2, Article 3, Article 4... something interesting there, we'll get back to that*, Article 5, Article 6, Article 7. Nope! OK, down through the amendments... Ah! 14th Amendment.

1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Oh. That was ratified in 1868 and some people might call it "quaint". Prior to that, nothing was written nor even suggested as to who was legally a citizen. Perhaps this was because the drafters of the original US Constitution were actually, until 1784, British subjects, rebellious though they might have been at the time.

Kavanagh, somehow able to divine from the grave the "actual" intent of the drafters seems to be reading something which isn't and never has been there.

Give them time. Before long anyone who doesn't pass the Kavanagh "smell test" will be declared non-human and Arizona Republicans will be demanding to issue hunting licenses for them.

* Kavanagh, just so we're clear here, is sitting in Arizona yapping it up only by virtue of Article IV of the US Constitution. He is not a native of Arizona. He is a retired New York Port Authority cop from Queen's, New York.