Maria Milagros Reyes Torres poses with her mother,who gave birth to the five-year old in McAllen. The two reside in El Salvador today although Milagros is a U.S. citizen.

SAN LUIS TALPA, El Salvador, Aug. 25 - Maria Milagros Reyes Torres is what some would refer to as an “Anchor Baby.”

The kind of U.S. citizen born to an undocumented immigrant, a citizen by virtue of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States that guarantees citizenship to persons born in the country.

In one of the great political debates of the day, or perhaps one of the great issues of election year demagoguery, repeal of the amendment is a recurrent theme. Why should persons who enter the country illegally be allowed to give birth to children who by benefit of their birthright citizenship become a burden to the schools, medical services, and social nets of our economy such as food stamps and public housing and become the “anchor” for their parents or single parent who sneaked into the country to gain legal residence and or citizenship themselves?

I don’t want to get into the arguments—pro or con, or the difficulty of repealing an amendment to the constitution or passing a new one. I don’t want to justify or debate any of the poignant arguments. That is ground already well covered in today’s political environment. What I want to do is provide some faces for the debate. Introduce some players, share some pictures, provide a biography and let the reader decide if this human being in front of them is an “Anchor” or “Terror Baby” as some elected representatives at the state and national level have brought forward in this mid-term election year.

Maria Milagros Reyes Torres was born at McAllen Medical Center on September 29, 2004. She holds a birth certificate, a U.S. passport and a Social Security Number. Until last November she attended Sam Rayburn Elementary School with great enthusiasm. On the opening day of school she was disappointed when the McAllen School District denied its students the right to listen to President Obama during an address to the school children of the U.S. due to controversies promoted by a few parents in the district. She did watch the re-broadcast of the Presidential address that was shown the following Monday at her school.

In early November Maria Milagros’ mother, uncomfortable with her own immigration status and out of yearning for her other children, Milagros’ siblings in El Salvador, boarded a plane in Reynosa, flying back to the Central American republic, taking her daughter with her, allowing her to meet her brothers and sisters and extended family as well as to become familiar with her mother’s native land.

Milagros went through a difficult period of adjustment in El Salvador. Accustomed to Burger King and McDonalds, cable TV and the Internet, playing in the park and traveling to South Padre Island she went through some difficult transitions. Hot water became a thing of the past, cable television and Internet likewise. McDonalds and Burger King were replaced by Pupusas, hand-made tortillas, and chicken killed in her own patio after being raised to maturity in her same house. Daily walks to play in her neighborhood park in McAllen were replaced by evenings locked up inside due to a climate of danger in her mother’s native country.

Initially her health also became an issue. Lack of clean drinking water and open sewage in the streets of the rural part of the country where her mother resides exposed her to parasites and frequent illnesses that she never experienced in McAllen.

Today Milagros is a confused five-year old with her sixth birthday around the corner. She is happy to live with the siblings she had previously only spoken with by cell phone. She likes the lush vegetation and stunning beauty of the volcanic, mountainous country of her family with its gorgeous beaches and rolling surf that put South Padre Island to shame. She appreciates the flavor and wholesomeness of the fresh food she eats. She misses her school, Rayburn Elementary, playing in the park behind her house in McAllen, the little trips to icon fast food stores in the U.S. and her friends and classmates in the Rio Grande Valley. She misses the attention she had as an only child that was spoiled by a nurturing stepfather who raised her as one of his own.

The Anchor Baby Myth

It is difficult to look at Maria Milagros Reyes Torres as an “Anchor Baby.” Her mother didn’t come to the United States to have her. The little girl was born under the circumstances of any baby whose parents live wherever they choose to live; she was a product of life itself. Milagros would indeed appreciate the opportunity to someday bring her brothers and sisters, indeed her mother to the United States according to the proper procedures. She will be able to do that when she reaches the age of 21. As far as her being a “Terror Baby,” someone who will be trained by left–wing guerrillas, indoctrinated to hate the United States and ultimately return to the country to commit an act of death and destruction—one look at her pictures and lifestyle speak for themselves.

Shame on the political leaders of the day who would engender so much hate and attempt to stoke the flames of discontent for temporary political gain. I know they couldn’t possibly be around this little girl or her family for even a few minutes without feeling profound shame for the negative emotions they are trying to evoke from their constituents.

Bill Rovira is a reporter, writer and commentator on border life who lives in McAllen, Texas. His Roving Rovira columns appear exclusively in the Guardian.

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