The “Anchor Baby” Myth

A nasty myth continues to be promoted in the USA, and the myth is used to attack the legitimacy of certain U.S. citizens. Natural-born U.S. citizens are given the derogatory label “anchor babies” if they have at least one biological parent who is not also a natural-born U.S. citizen.

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines “anchor baby” as an offensive label “Used as a disparaging term for a child born to a noncitizen mother in a country that grants automatic citizenship to children born on its soil, especially when the child’s birthplace is thought to have been chosen in order to improve the mother’s or other relatives’ chances of securing eventual citizenship.”

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “The earliest known use of the noun anchor baby is in the 1990s.”

The fallacy of the “anchor baby” myth is explained by the law offices of immigration attorneys Gita B. Kapur and Associates:

“If a child is born on U.S. soil, that child is automatically a United States citizen. That fact has created a widespread myth that undocumented immigrant mothers (and fathers) will do anything to make sure that their child is born inside U.S. borders so that they have an ‘anchor baby.’

The idea is that having a child who is a U.S. citizen automatically protects the child’s parents from deportation, regardless of their immigration status. That’s far from the truth. It’s actually very difficult for undocumented immigrant parents of a U.S.-born child to obtain legal safeguards against deportation or improve their immigration status.”

This blogger cannot help but to notice that the term “anchor baby” is used in a misogynistic way. The term is often used in reference to a U.S. citizen who has an immigrant mother, with no concern for the legal status of the former’s father. Such a natural-born U.S. citizen will be called an “anchor baby” even if the former’s father is a natural-born U.S. citizen.

An example of this phenomenon appeared on the X dot com website on 28 February 2026:

Calling Barron Trump an anchor baby is ridiculous at best. His mother had permanent residency in the USA at the time of his birth, and she became a U.S. citizen when he was four months old. Plus, Barron’s father is a natural-born U.S. citizen. Thus, there was nothing for Barron to anchor by him being born in the USA.

Disapproval of Donald Trump’s U.S. presidency is no excuse for giving any of his children a false derogatory label. Yet, such is being done by people who are opposed to Trump’s presidency.

If it is wrong for Donald Trump and his supporters to use “anchor babies” to describe any U.S. citizens, then it is equally wrong for critics of Donald Trump to do so.

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