You prolly know about Toys 'R Us offering to pay $$$ to the USA citizen first born in the USA in 2007.
But Toys 'R Us stipulated that all children of immigrants are ineligible. So the first 3 USA citizens born in 2007 were children of immigrants, and were ineligible for the $$$$.
Do you like this?
Can you think of other groups giving birth to USA citizens who you could make ineligible?
How about exclude newborns if one of their parents unicycle?
The first thought is that Toys 'R Us is evil, but on a few more seconds thought, I bet the US law makes it illegal for them to pay non-citizen immigrants, or pay to anyone under a certain age. They aren’t evil, they are just creative and have a legal team making sure they adhere to government forced discrimination or face undesirable consequences.
What about c-sections?
Do I care? Yo, you work for Wal-Mart, you know how Corporate America is. That’s why I vote with my money (hey, you get practically no choice with your regular vote) and I don’t shop at Toys-R-Us.
Some background.
Jackpots just for legal residents? Questions arise over N.C. lottery rules that could prevent illegal immigrants from collecting winnings over $600
MARK JOHNSON AND STELLA HOPKINS
978 words
14 April 2006
Charlotte Observer (NC)
Copyright 2006 The Charlotte Observer. All rights reserved.
RALEIGH
The estimated 390,000 illegal immigrants in North Carolina are welcome to spend money on the state’s new lottery, but they may not be allowed to collect.
Lottery officials said state law does not prohibit illegal immigrants from collecting a prize, but the lottery’s claim policies may effectively bar them from getting the money.
N.C. lottery rules require a winner of $600 or more to claim their prize at a lottery office, showing a photo identification and proof of a Social Security number. If the winner doesn’t have a Social Security number, the lottery will accept: a U.S. passport, a foreign passport, an identification card issued by another state, a U.S. armed forces identification card, voter registration card or permanent resident card (green card), which is now pink or white.
Typically, illegal immigrants cannot legally obtain a Social Security number.
“If they don’t have a green card or foreign passport, they’re not going to get anything,” said lottery spokeswoman Pam Walker. “Because they’re likely to be an illegal alien.”
An outright ban on jackpots for illegal immigrants would put North Carolina in a small minority. As few as two states, Maryland and North Dakota, restrict prizes to legal residents. Most states’ guidelines don’t address the issue, while states along the Mexican border make no effort to determine residency. One of California’s first big prize winners in 1985 was an illegal immigrant who won $2 million and was promptly deported back to Mexico.
The issue comes just as the illegal immigration debate is boiling over nationally with protests across the country, a congressional showdown and fellow Republicans criticizing President Bush over his policies.
At the same time, North Carolina’s lottery is less than a month old in a state with one of the fastest-growing Hispanic populations. One in every five lottery retailers on opening day last month was in a neighborhood where the adult population was at least 10 percent Hispanic, according to an Observer analysis of lottery and demographic data.
It would be unfair to block illegal immigrants from winning, said Sandra Machuca, owner of La Centroamericana convenience store on South Boulevard in Charlotte. She has been selling about $1,000 worth of scratch-off tickets a week. Her biggest winner won $150.
“None of my clients are American,” Machuca said. “Whoever wins has a right to the prize. That’s why they buy the ticket.”
State Controller Robert Powell, who oversees the state’s cash flow and accounting, said lottery officials should address the issue.
“If you’re here illegally, then there should be at least a legal determination as to whether you should receive the funds,” Powell said. “If you’re not here in this country legally, I don’t know whether you should be eligible to receive lottery winnings.”
Powell said he is not proposing a rule one way or the other.
“I’m just saying it ought to be discussed and answered,” he said.
Walker said a winner who has no Social Security number but does have required identification will still get paid but at the higher, nonresident tax withholding rate, 30 percent instead of 25 percent.
“Our policy on this mirrors many other states’ and there is no intent to prohibit any person from claiming a prize,” Walker said. “They simply must have the required identification.”
Few restrictions elsewhere
A bill in the S.C. legislature would limit winners to legal residents, but that legislation is stalled in committee. Lottery Director Ernie Passailaigue said winners must give a Social Security number, which effectively bars illegal immigrants, but all they need is a friend.“It’s easy to get around the law,” he said. “Just give (the winning ticket) to somebody who has a Social Security number.”
Several state lottery Web sites carry warnings about a current lottery scam in which someone claiming to be an illegal immigrant sells a winning ticket for less than its value to avoid the spotlight of claiming the prize. The ticket, of course, is fake, but the fear of scrutiny is not.
Jose Caballero was an illegal immigrant delivering furniture in San Jose, Calif., when he won the California lottery in 1985. Federal authorities returned him to Mexico after reading news accounts, but he kept his prize.
North Dakota’s lottery instituted a policy on April 1 prohibiting illegal immigrants from buying tickets or collecting prizes, though director Chuck Keller acknowledged it is impossible to ban the ticket buying and claiming of small prizes.
“As a matter of public policy,” Keller said, “an illegal alien should not have the privilege of buying a state service … nor be able to win a prize.”
Education or enforcement?
Nolo Martinez, a former governor’s adviser in North Carolina on Latino affairs, said such policies criminalize people who would be paying taxes and want nothing more than to live outside the shadows.
“We’re creating a mentality of a police state by suggesting that we’re going to bring in immigration enforcement to a game that was designed to benefit education,” said Martinez, now with the Center for New North Carolinians at UNC Greensboro.
The Texas lottery is among several southern border states that make no effort to screen for illegal immigrants, some of whom likely have won a jackpot at some point, said spokeswoman Leticia Vasquez.
“We’re pretty sure that they have,” Vasquez said, “but we don’t ask them to present any documentation to certify that they’re in this country legally. We just ask for photo ID.”
Staff writers Adam Bell and Dánica Coto contributed.
!EEK! !EEK!
Against full citizens of the USA, because they are too young. Hmmm.
All that other stuff is unrelated to FULL USA citizens, but these babies are FULL USA citizens.
many nations allow USA citizens to buy into their national lottery. Why would the USA restrict?
All aside form the Toys 'R Us issue.
Want to legitimately discriminate against newborn USA citizens? Yes. Where do I sign up for that?
Wow, dude. I understand it was pressure from threads like this, and the unicyclist community in general who expressed their outrage, that caused the company to give the prizes to the deserving new Americans, regardless of their parentage.
Very cool.
I guess Mission Accomplished, and we can let this thread rest.
Thank you, Greg!
I think it is nothing short of amazing that Toys R Us couldn’t predict this outcome. I’m sure there are those in its management who did and either didn’t speak up or were ignored.
Deeply ingrained in the American psyche, long before welfare, universal education (such as it is), or emergency rooms, was the idea that if you came to America to make a better life for you and your family, then, dammit, you were the very definition of an American.
one days as I was idling around my company’s offices in the US I spotted a van where they required people to give their blood.
So I voluntereed, and started to joke with the nurse who, being haïtian, spoke perfect french.
then the doctor stepped in and said “no way”! why? I did not have a social security number so I was not eligible to give my blood 
I suppose again that was linked to obscure security reasons but frankly the nurse and I were appalled. So there is not even a trace of my blood in the U.S.
Hear hear! Though on the one had I was thinking “it’s their money,” on the other hand the reason you do contests like that is to make people happy and promote your company or brand. Controversy kind of kills that, so it makes sense for Toys R (how do I get the R to be backwards?) Us to reverse themselves before even more damage was done.
Part of the reason for their initial requirements was probably for tax and legal purposes, and also to make sure the winnings are not applied to someone who might be leaving the country at any time.
Come MUni in our woods and you may deposit some of your blood in our soil. 
Some think this may be the reason for their foibles, while others think it was a true expression of their anti-immigration stance.
Though it does sound a little funny at first to hear the first born american of 2007 is named Yuki Lin.
Personally, I hate it when I see stuff like they show in the article… “Chinese-American.” Canada has had a big problem with it’s hyphenated citezens. It’s not that I have a problem with imigrants, it’s just that I have met people who’s family has lived in Canada for generations, but they still consider themselves to be Dutch, or Afghani, or whatever. I know nationalism is going down the hole, and many aspects of nationalism SHOULD be going down the hole, but I still think that if you live in a country and are taking advantage of it’s rescources and quality of life, then maybe your loyalty should be to that country.
I am not saying in the least that immigrants should abandon their heritage and culture, but they should choose whether they want to live by the values of the country they left, or the one they went to.
Far as I can recall, if anyone who was born and raised in America said they were American when asked their ethnicity, you’d smack 'em down for being a wise ass. Everyone here is German, Irish, Italian, English, Scottish, Iraqi, Egyptian, etc.
This I don’t mind that much. An American citizen who wants to respect his Chinese heritage. Ok, I’m cool with that. But I hate this attitude of the minority communities (specifically, black people) that being referred to as black is degrading. I have seriously heard some black people say something almost exactly like this: “The white people are keeping us down by referring to us as black people.”
…WHAT?!?
While it’s still their money to give away or not give away as they choose, what people think about their motives still doesn’t matter, other than in potential damage to the corporation’s image. I’m sure Toys B Us is happy to sell product to anyone who can pay, but if they’re going to give up $25K to help raise up a baby, they want that baby to stay in the country.
Definitely yes for the smack-down. And even many “native Americans” might not want to call themselves Americans if they aren’t happy with American culture or values. But we’re not all this country or that country, either. What if you’re German-Norweigan-Lithuanian-Polish-Russian-English+trace elements? What the hell are you supposed to call yourself then?
I’m a mutt.
Yes, everyone has a different ethnic background, but how far should you go back to find the ethnic root you go by? One part of my family, of which I am the third generation born in Canada, is British in origin, but I understand that the British side of my family was French several hundred years before thy were British. Should I be Canadian because I was born here, or British because my Great Granfather was born there, or French because his family came from there WAY back? Where do we draw the line?
The problem with hyphenated citizens is when they want to live in a country like Canada, but they don’t want to abide by it’s laws. They want to abide by the laws of their orgin country. For examply, recenty there was a movement to make Shariah Law a legal justice system in Ontario. This caused a controversy because Shariah law is significantly different from Canadian law, and created a double standard.
If a person wants to move to another country, they should research the laws of that country and decide if they are willing to abide by them before they immigrate, rather than moving to that country and then shouting that they are being discriminated against as a minority.