With Senate Bill 1070, state Sen. Russell Pearce and his supporters went after illegal immigrants. Next, they're going after babies.

Pearce plans to introduce legislation in Arizona that would deny birth certificates to children born here to non-citizen parents.

This has long been the goal of Pearce and national organizations like FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

Pearce worked with a lawyer affiliated with FAIR to craft SB 1070 and most likely will do the same thing when he attempts to withhold citizenship from newborns of non-citizen parents.

Pearce recently told the news agency Reuters, "It is difficult to imagine a more self-defeating legal system than one that makes unauthorized entry into the U.S. a criminal offense and simultaneously provides perhaps the greatest possible inducement to illegal entry."

He believes that children born to illegal immigrants should not be citizens.

"They are citizens of the country of their mother," he said. "That's why they are called in some cases 'jackpot babies' or 'anchor babies.'"

Still, Pearce's belief is not how the Constitution has been interpreted - so far.

The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 as a way to guarantee citizenship for freed slaves, says that "all persons, born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."

Ira Mehlman, national media director for FAIR, told me that his organization believes that non-citizens and illegal immigrants are not "subject to the jurisdiction" of the U.S. and their children should not be considered citizens. He points out that the children of foreign diplomats born here are not U.S. citizens.

Others argue, however, that while diplomats cannot be prosecuted for crimes under U.S. law and therefore are not subject to our jurisdiction, we do prosecute border crossers, meaning that they are under U.S. jurisdiction.

"There is no question that whether it (a law to deny birth certificates) is initiated at the state level or whether it is initiated at the federal level, that ultimately this will wind up at the Supreme Court to be decided," Mehlman said.

While a proposal to deny citizenship to such children has been introduced in Congress, it hasn't come to a vote.

"It seems unlikely that Congress is going to take this up. The states seem to be the incubators of these ideas. Certainly Arizona has been right at the forefront all along," Mehlman said.

With a Republican-controlled legislature and with opinion polls backing SB 1070, Pearce's proposal should have widespread support among lawmakers and a large majority of citizens. Opponents of the idea expect to see such a bill.

Alfredo Gutierrez, an activist, former state legislator and one of the organizers of a boycott in response to SB 1070, told me, "If they go after the children, then there is no denying that this is a racial thing, an attack on a specific ethnic group that is seen as a threat. That kind of thing didn't exist for any other ethnic group. It would pull the veil from the racists."

I asked representatives of Gov. Jan Brewer, Sen. John McCain, Senate candidate J.D. Hayworth and attorney-general candidate Andrew Thomas, among others, if they would deny birth certificates to the newborns of non-citizens. None responded.

I suspect they're waiting for an opinion poll to tell them what they should think about it.

Why? Because folks on both sides of this argument agree upon one thing: Trying to change the meaning of "born in the U.S.A." could lead an even nastier fight than the one over SB 1070.

"You guys in Arizona like to be in the spotlight, don't you?" Mehlman said.

Reach Montini at 602-444-8978.