Rep. Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s new running mate, used the perjorative term “anchor babies” to describe the children of illegal immigrants during a town hall meeting last year in Wisconsin.
During a question and answer period, Ryan was asked a long rambling question by a man who used the term to describe children in southern New Mexico. When Ryan responded, he used the term himself and said he was in agreement with the man’s damning description of the way Mexican immigrants abuse the American system.
The incident is part of the increased scrutiny that Ryan will endure now that he is the vice presidential candidate. Though a Congressman is in the public eye, it’s nothing like the media glare that Ryan is receiving now.
This was the man’s statement/question that prompted Ryan’s response:
“I’m a Master Sergeant, United States Marine Corp, retired. I want to make a suggestion that’s kind of controversial. Most people don’t broach the subject for fear of being called a racist. But a, we can save billions—and I mean billions of dollars—on illegal immigration. I put five months of the year down in Southern New Mexico, and middle of the month, and the end of each month, the post office is loaded with people who don’t speak English and have Mexican plates on their cars—and they’re fancy cars. A, mainly because they have anchor babies—they come across sneak across the boarder, and drop a baby and call that an American citizen. And this child has all the benefits until it’s 18. We just built a new school in Columbus, New Mexico, and cost $16 million and at 100 percent capacity with 97 percent of the children from Mexico. If we could cut (Ryan: “You mean they cross everyday?”).. Oh, yes sir. Buses down at the boarder pick the kids up and bring them three miles to the school. And when the kids get older, they hit the boarder, they take the buses from Deming, New Mexico, 30 miles north. And they take the high school kids, feed em, and take them back down. We’re hemorrhaging money down on our boarders. We have Area 51, where they’ll shoot Americans if they try to cross into dreamland over there. But our boarders are porous and the United States government’s not doing much about it. Our boarder agents down there are overworked—they do what they can—it just, uh, the government’s not behind them. The places that have fences, tall fences, have worked to stem the tide. But it’s just porous, they walk right through. But there’s billions we waste every year on this program.”
In addition to saying “I agree” in the video, Ryan even used the term “anchor babies” himself when he’s reading back his notes. And worse, when a woman in the Wisconsin audience tries to call the man out and describes what he said as “racist and sexist comments” and tries to cajole Ryan into confronting the man, Ryan instead shuts the woman down and says “the gentleman has a right to be heard.”
Watch the tape and see for yourself.
