Immigration bills pile up, focus on birthright citizenship

The state-led battle against illegal immigration continues to gain momentum, with more than 600 bills filed in January.

In all of 2010, state legislators filed 1,400 immigration-related bills and resolutions, according to a report by the National Conference of State Legislatures

. Just under 350 were enacted — a record that states seem on course to break

The most high-profile efforts continue to center around mobilizing local police to enforce federal immigration laws. But the battle to end birthright citizenship is quickly heating up.

Arizona announced last week plans to deny the American-born babies of illegal immigrants U.S. citizenship. Georgia, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and South Carolina are expected to file similar legislation, the New York Times reported.

State legislators have acknowledged that their bills will likely be challenged as unconstitutional. But they hope the matter will make it to the Supreme Court and put pressure on federal legislators, according to the New York Times.

In the meantime, Federal legislators in both the House of Representatives and the Senate have announced plans to amend the constitution to deny the American-born babies of illegal immigrants.

Legal experts say federal legislators, however, have little chance of succeeding in changing the 14th Amendment, according to Fox News Latino .

"The framers of the Constitution made it very difficult to ratify it," said Kevin R. Johnson, the dean of the University of California-Davis School of Law and an immigration and civil rights expert. "The last proposed constitutional amendment was the Equal Rights Amendment more than 25 years ago, and after a long, complex and slow ratification process by the states, it was never ratified."

e-mail: estuart@desnews.com