'Anchor babies' are about to become a major issue in American politics.

In the past few weeks alone influential columnist George Will (left) and New York State governor candidate Steve Levy have made it clear that the American children of undocumented Americans should not be given citizenship.

Will reinterprets the 14th amendment and says it really can mean an end to birthright citizenship.

Isn't it wonderful how Will like so many of the right wingers demands the original meaning of the constitution be adhered to -- until it suits them to say otherwise.

Will came up with a flimsy reason to overturn the stipulation that all those born on American soil were American citizens.

We know where Will is coming from. Here's his argument from 2006 for locking down the Mexican border.

" America, the only developed nation that shares a long -- 2,000-mile -- border with a Third World nation, could seal that border. East Germany showed how: walls, barbed wire, machine gun-toting border guards in towers, mine fields, large, irritable dogs. And we have modern technologies that East Germany never had: sophisticated sensors, unmanned surveillance drones, etc. "

Sure. Now Will and others are ensuring anchor babies will become a code word for those who believe that many illegal immigrants come here in order to have babies who then cannot be deported and who can eventually claim in their parents.

Forget the fact that claiming in parents would take over 21 years before it could happen --don't let the truth get in the way of a good narrative.

Levy, who won his races for county executive in Suffolk County in Long Island on the back of being a strident anti immigration politician has actually used the term anchor babies and has refused to apologize for it.

Then he barely apologized after a Latino immigrant was knifed to death in his county by a gang of racist youths.

He is running for governor on the Republican line. He switched from Democrat which was no surprise and Republicans think he has a better shot than the faded Rick Lazio to beat Andrew Cuomo the overwhelming front runner.

I'm glad to see that Levy is not getting a free pass on his immigration stance - and from a former anchor baby.

Attorney General candidate Sean Coffey from Westchester , the proud son of Irish immigrants has already put it up to Levy that his stance is racist. Coffey pointed out his own parents were not citizens when he was born.

"I must be an anchor baby," Coffey told Newsday explaining he was born years before his parents became citizens...I am not intimately familiar with the means by which they became citizens. They were certainly assisted by the fact they had seven citizens as children."
"...When you use pejorative terms like 'anchor baby,' you don't get to define the scope of insult."

Here's another likely anchor baby. Ronald Reagan's grandfather . It has never been proven that his Irish great grandparents entered the U.S. legally from Canada in the 1840s.

So it is good to see politicians like Coffey stand up to the anti immigrant hype so many politicians use these days. Hopefully more will follow his lead