Worried about made up things

American conservatives worry a lot. They worry to a horrible degree. In fact, it often seems that American conservatism is fueled by fear and distress. What’s really fascinating is what they worry about. It seems that much of their energy is spent being very worked up over things fully imagined. Maybe it’s the religious side of their minds that cause this. Christians believe a lot of weird things, and maybe that spills over?

We know that Conservatives worry about THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS, which doesn’t exist. They worry about “Partial Birth Abortions”, which don’t exist.  They worry about totally made up satanic murders and ritual abuse.  

And now, led by Trump, they are very worried about imaginary anchor babies. As the article explains, the idea doesn't even work in a reasonable way:

In order to apply for such an option, the parent of a so-called anchor baby would need to do all of the following.

• Wait for his or her child to reach the age of 21.
• Leave the United States.
• Return to their home country.
• Have their child begin the lengthy process of applying for a family reunification immigration request.
• Clear consular interviews and a U.S. State Department background check. (One or both would very likely provide evidence that said parent, at some point, lived in the United States illegally -- long enough for that "anchor baby" to be conceived or born. And despite widespread belief to the contrary, there is indeed a penalty for that.)

If a person has lived in the United States unlawfully for a period of more than 180 days but less than one year, there is an automatic three-year bar on that person ever reentering the United States -- and that's before any wait time for a visa. So that's a minimum of 21 years for the child to mature, plus the three-year wait.

That's right! It's easy: sneak into the country, have a baby, go home, wait 21 years, have the grown up child fill out tons of papaer work, wait three more years and, if you get lucky, PRESTO! You made it into America! Good planning, there.

Hat tip Ed Brayton