Guess Which Presidential Candidate Was a Mexican Anchor Baby?

Guess which presidential candidate was an anchor baby whose father was born in Chihuahua, Mexico?

No, not Mike Huckabee. Irony is rarely distilled in such pure degree.

No, not Bill Richardson, either.

I'll make it easy for you.

He's a Republican who was endorsed by Tom Tancredo when the Coloradan withdrew from the race in December. You may recall that we observed then that whomever Tancredo chose would be the most xenophobic of the remaining candidates (a tight call for anyone but Tancredo).

Still don't get it?

OK, this guy belongs to a religion which he says is just like any other religion.

That's right. Mitt Romney.

Not only was his dad born in Chihuahua, Mexico, but three generations of the Romneys lived there and all four of his grandparents died there.

Why?

Because the U.S. Congress passed the Edmunds Act in 1883, which deprived polygamists of the right to vote, sit on juries or hold political office; in effect, it anulled their citizenship and made them renegades, subject to arrest upon detection. Diehard polygamists like the Romneys, who believed themselves to be latter-day Pilgrims as well as saints, fled from religious persecution in Utah to the promised land of Mexico, where polygamy was still tolerated. Since the Book of Mormon identifies the Aztecs as a lost tribe of Israel and God's chosen people, the Romneys must have had no qualms about resettling there with their multiple wives and legions of progeny.

Miles Park Romney, the literal patriarch of the family, established his extended family in Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1884. The Mexican government allowed the exiles to establish Mormon colonies there, which strikes us as odd since whenever Americans settled on Mexican territory (as in Texas or California) they usually set up their own outlaw republics and petitioned the U.S. Congress for annexation. I suppose the Mexicans must have thought that unlikely since the Mormons were fugitives from U.S. law who wanted no part of their native land and certainly didn't want the U.S. government to infringe on their asylum.

In 1895, Miles' son, Gaskell Romney, married Anna Amelia Pratt, whose family had also fled to Mexico ahead of U.S. federal marshalls. The couple, who were monogamous, were the parents of George W. Romney, Mitt's father, who was born in Colonia Dublán, near Galeana, in the Mexican State of Chihuahua on July 8, 1907.

In 1912, at the height of the Mexican Revolution, Anna and her son George were granted safe conduct by the rebels and left Chihuahua on the last train to Texas. To rejoin his family, Gaskell Romney had to undertake a perilous journey across the desert, walking hundreds of miles, until finally crossing the border at New Mexico, as migrants from Chihuahua still do today.

George W. Romney, the Mexican-born son of Mormon exiles, was the father of Mitt Romney. Mitt was George's "anchor baby" whose American birth and that of George's father created a bridge of citizenship for him.

George Romney, who became governor of Michigan and ran for president in 1968, was a champion of civil rights and an immigration advocate. His son Mitt would do well not only to recall his father's legacy but also his family's history, the generous asylum provided to the Romneys by Mexico and the protection afforded his family during the most tumultuous period in Mexican history. He should remember also that he, too, was an anchor baby.

And not only an anchor baby, but a Mexican, too. Under Article 30 of the Mexican Constitution, Mitt Romney, as the son of a native born Mexican, is himself entitled to Mexican citizenship and could run for president of that country if he fails to be elected here.

By the way, "Mitt's" real name is Willard.

See also:

Mitt Romney: The Buck Stops With the Landscaper (Dec. 6, 2007)