“Anchor babies” are…not.

It’s not a thing. The nasty little term has been going around conservative circles for about 10 years now. But the idea that hundreds of thousands of people come to the US for the sole reason of creating a citizen that will get them fast-tracked for their own citizenship is bologna. Politifact brings the noise:

Based on past reporting, it’s not clear whether every birth to an undocumented mother was for the purpose of tethering the family to American soil.

“There are a million hardworking Hispanic people in San Diego who came here to work and then happened to have a baby,” midwife Lauren Weber said in the 2010 fact-check. “Then, there are people who come over in order to have a baby.”

“I believe that most migrants come for economic reasons and opportunity,” said Theresa Brown, the director of immigration policy at the Bipartisan Policy Institute. “The idea that their child may be able to sponsor them for a green card in 21 years is probably too long term to be a primary driver of immigration.”

You read that right. Undocumented immigrant parents will still be illegally in the country until the child is 21. Most come here to work rather than to squeeze out a pup that is legal. But fuck facts, right? As long as you have some good buzzwords you can use on people who check in with the right side of their amygdala all the time, you don’t need truth.