Butler County's Daryl Metcalfe joined conservative legislators from around the country in DC today to unveil legislation denying US-born children of illegal immigrants of citizenship.

The state representative says the legislation is necessary "to correct the monumental misapplication of the 14th Amendment" that all those born in the U.S. are automatically citizens.

"Currently, hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens are crossing U.S. borders to give birth and exploit their child as an 'anchor baby,' as a means to obtain residency, access taxpayer-funded benefits and steal American jobs for themselves and for their families," said a news release.

Metcalfe and others argue the 14th Amendent really only awards citizenship to children whose parents are legal citizens. Not surprisingly, the ACLU disagrees, noting the Supreme Court ruled otherwise more a century ago, and legislation such as Metcalfe's subverts the anti-discriminatory aspects of the amendment (which conferred citizenship rights on slaves and all others born in the country).

The bill would do more than deny birth certificates than some of those born on U.S. soil, the ACLU of Pa says in its own statement.

"The proposed legislation would also require all people in the U.S., whether citizens or not, to prove their status before they can receive a standard birth certificate for their baby. Currently, there is no such requirement. The bill, which Metcalfe says he will introduce in the current legislative session, directly contradicts the long-standing 14th Amendment guarantee that all people born in the U.S. and under its jurisdiction are citizens of the U.S. and the state in which they reside and equal under the law."