Bonnie Erbe

In the following viewpoint, Bonnie Erbe argues in favor of immigration restrictions, which she believes are necessary in order to accommodate the housing, employment, and medical care needs of America’s most recent immigrants. In particular, she supports the proposal to eliminate birthright citizenship, which grants automatic citizenship to children born to foreign mothers in the United States. Birthright citizenship is unfair, Erbe contends, because it allows noncitizens and their American-born children to bypass the regular naturalization process that legal immigrants must adhere to. Erbe is a columnist for the Abilene Reporter-News.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. How does Erbe respond to the contention that immigration restrictions are racist?
2. In California in the late 1990s, what was the annual number of foreign mothers who gave birth, according to Erbe?
3. Who is...