anchor baby

plural anchor babies

1. USderogatoryoftenA child born to a noncitizen mother in the United States or another country that grants birthright citizenship (cf. jus soli), and who, as a citizen, can help their parents and other family members gain citizenship or permanent residency.

   In the US each year, hundreds of thousands of anchor babies are born to illegal-alien mothers.

   2009, Daniel Sheehy, Fighting Immigration Anarchy, page 63

   4 more examples

   I suppose you're going to tell me all about the stupidity of the gringos. By the way, you're one of them, anchor baby. Once your folks swam the river and had you over here, you started getting all the freebies, right?

   2010, Mike McPheters, Cartels and Combinations

   […] scenes of an ambulance let through the Tijuana-San Diego border and a pregnant senorita emerging to give birth to her anchor baby.

   2011, David Carraturo, Cameron Nation: Going All-In to Save His Country, page 201

   […] anchor babies remains a divisive issue surrounding illegal immigration in the United States.

   2014, Marilyn J. Coleman, Lawrence H. Ganong, editors, The Social History of the American Family: An Encyclopedia, SAGE Publications, →ISBN

   They’re kids who anti-immigrant groups disparage as “anchor babies”, a derogatory term that insinuates these children are little more than pawns used by their immigrant parents to get a foothold in the US and eventually become citizens themselves. […] When Donald Trump launched his campaign for the 2016 presidential election, his signature policy agenda around immigration often leaned into the “anchor baby” fallacy. Part of his platform included ending birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants, and Trump called for deporting such families.

   2020 March 16, Alexandra Villarreal, “'Anchor babies': the 'ludicrous' immigration myth that treats people as pawns”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 12 May 2022

   Synonyms: passport baby