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TX GOP Rep. Riddle makes herself look silly by labeling U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants as “terror babies”

LatinaLista — Vilifying undocumented immigrants has reached an all-time low among the GOP, Texas GOP in this case, with the release of the latest accusation being lobbed by Texas state House Republican Debbie Riddle.

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Appearing on CNN’s Anderson Cooper’s show, Riddle claims that “former FBI agents” are informing her office that wealthy tourists are coming to the United States just to have children born with U.S. citizenship who then return to their own countries, raise the children as “little terrorists” so they can return to the U.S. in the future to wreak destructive havoc.

Republican Texas Representative Debbie Riddle appears on CNN’s Anderson Cooper program.

When pressed by Cooper to reveal the agent or show proof of her accusation, Riddle became very defensive and quickly tied the issue with the latest GOP smear campaign — birthright citizenship.

Riddle, unbelievably, took the argument of children being born here of undocumented parents and implied that they too were involved in the plots that she claims are underway.

She must have realized how ludicrous it sounded because she switched gears to fall back on all the old standard GOP arguments of how undocumented immigrants take advantage of the United States without giving anything back — except now “terror babies.”

In fact, Riddle must have been feeling pretty nervous about having to come clean with her information, which she said she was in the process of still gathering and not ready to reveal anything more, that she hit on every trite GOP border and immigration argument, even if it didn’t have anything to do with the question she was being asked.

Her tone and attitude reflected poorly on the state of Texas but was definitely in line with the GOP’s strategy to vilify, incite anger and lie about undocumented immigrants to fit party rhetoric.

Riddle made a big deal about the children being born here in the U.S. illegally but a new report from Pew Hispanic shows that while the children are being born here, they’re not going anywhere.

According to the report, there are about 4 million U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants living in the country. An interesting revelation is that: “Unauthorized immigrants are much more likely than either legal immigrants or native-born adults to live in a household with a spouse and a child or children.”

In other words, they are more likely to live in a traditional family. It makes sense because having a family and providing for them is considered part of the American Dream all immigrants want for themselves.

Of course, those people who are delusional and mean-spirited would say that these families are nothing more than the training grounds for future terrorists — if there was a belief in that argument.

Thankfully, there is proof that this argument is nothing but a racist invention. The proof exists in all the news stories done over the years showcasing these children who go on to college, graduate and become surgeons, astronauts, teachers, business entrepreneurs, and yes, even politicians.

Terrorists? No. Some of these children undoubtedly entered the military to fight the very terrorists Rep. Riddle is talking about.

Unfortunately, Ms. Riddle is right in that there are terrorists among us. But the current crop of terrorists are those who are inciting hatred, knowingly spreading lies and abusing the trust of their constituents — all for political means.

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Comment(3)

  • The American
    August 11, 2010 at 9:09 pm

    I saw the interview. Even though anything is possible and given the current situation where nationals from the middle east are really checked befor coming to the US>…………………………this lady, RIDDLE, IS LYING!! you can see it in her face she trying to create panic and use this to her own political advantage. The difference is that the lady is 200 years old and the news form her looks like she needs mental help……….vote her out of OFFICE!!! SHE IS OBSOLETE!!

  • ellen sweets
    August 11, 2010 at 10:19 pm

    accurately characterizng rep. riddle’s inan commentary defies an appropriate adjectival description, but pathetic is as close as i can come. well, OK: dangerously pathetic.

  • Kaviani
    August 12, 2010 at 9:23 am

    I read about her “informers” and they were talking about wealthy muslims birth-touring, not hispanos.
    However, she still comes across as a shril, petty, ignorant hatemonger as she’s conflating every immigration-related issue as a single one.
    As for terrorists born in the US, shall we review Kaczynski? McVeigh? Joe Terrorist who kamikazed the IRS?

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