Most liberals embrace illegal immigrants; they are not, by and large, great friends of the unborn

* Most liberals embrace illegal immigrants; they are not, by and large, great friends of the unborn. But fetus talk can be desirable in the service of another agenda--as it was in a Kansas City, Mo., immigration case in May. A pregnant Mexican, in the U.S. illegally, resisted deportation by claiming U.S.

citizen status for her unborn child. U.S. district judge Scott Wright--who has overturned the Missouri legislature's partial-birth-abortion ban--agreed, citing the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. That act recognizes that fetuses bear some rights, at least when their mothers want them; but it can hardly be said to confer citizenship, which still requires (see Amendment XIV) birth on American soil. The Kansas City story is laughable, but not isolated: A similar case has now arisen in California, to which climes a deported Mexican woman, eight months pregnant, seeks to return--for her unborn baby's health. (She has suffered various complications during her pregnancy.) Lawyers in the California case are citing the Missouri decision, and the Unborn Victims of Violence Act; it seems immigration lawyers consider this a fresh, legitimate approach to fighting deportation. Thus it is that the Left would sooner see the abortion of potential U.S. citizens than their removal to Mexico. As a friend of NR observed, they have their newest bumper sticker: "You can abort 'em, but you can't deport 'em."

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