The Falsehood of Birthright Citizenship
Currently, the United States grants automatic citizenship to children born in the United States, regardless of whether a particular childs parents are United States citizens, legal permanent residents, temporary visitors, nonimmigrants, or illegal aliens. (A slight exception to the automatic grant of birthright citizenship is that children born in the United States to foreign diplomats are not automatically granted United States citizenship.) Shockingly, between 300,000 and 350,000 children per year are born in the United States to illegal-alien mothers, and these children are granted automatic citizenship upon birth. Some pundits argue that the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment demands that the children of illegal aliens and of nonimmigrants legally present in the United States be granted automatic citizenship; these pundits are simply wrong. Neither the Constitution nor any subsequent Supreme Court decision compels birthright citizenship to be conferred upon children of illegal aliens or of nonimmigrants born in the United States.
The Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment declares, All persons born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States (emphasis added). The Citizenship Clause establishes a two-prong test for Birthright Citizenship: (1) Birth in the United States and (2) Subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. The framers of the Citizenship Clause did not draft it on a blank slate, but rather adopted [it] against a legal and ideological background. After the Civil War, Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which read, All persons born in the US and not subject to the jurisdiction to any foreign power, excluding Indians, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States. Just two years later Congress drafted the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, intending to constitutionalize the definition provided in the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Senators Trumbell and Howard, the chief architects of the Fourteenth amendment, intended for a person to be subject to the jurisdiction of the United States only if the person did not owe allegiance to anyone else (Senator Trumbell). The framers included the Jurisdictional prong of the Citizenship Clause to narrow the scope of birthright citizenship. A proper interpretation of the Citizenship Clause leads to the conclusion that political membership, and thus citizenship, can only result from free individual choices.
As previously indicated, a child born in the United States to a foreign diplomat is not a United States citizen. Since the foreign diplomat is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, the diplomats child, who inherits his parents status, is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. Because the child is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, he is not granted United States citizenship upon birth.
Likewise, Congress must declare that the child of an illegal alien inherits the status of his parent; thus, the child, like his parent should be deemed to be an illegal alien. Otherwise, immigration law creates a perverse incentive for people to sneak into our country and give birth. Illegal aliens are individuals whose presence in the jurisdiction of the US is prohibited by law. They are manifestly individuals . . . whom society has explicitly . . . denied membership. By automatically granting citizenship to the child of an illegal entrant, Congress rewards illegal entrants for violating American law. Congress should not incent illegal aliens to violate the law of the United States. American citizenship confers valuable rights upon a person and the modern welfare state, characterized by expanded entitlements conferred upon citizen children and their families, compounds the attractiveness of American citizenship.
Further, the child of a nonimmigrant or of a temporary visitor should not be granted birthright citizenship. An alien present in the United States on a nonimmigrant visa necessarily owes loyalty and allegiance to a foreign nation. Congress must demand that the child of a nonimmigrant inherits the status of his parent and is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, and therefore is not a United States citizen upon birth. The Constitution does not contradict the principle that a child born in the United States to a person who is neither a citizen nor a legal permanent resident should inherit the status of his parent.
An RE:
I so agree. I am living in NC and people think there is a problem here with illegal immigrants. I just laugh when I hear this. When I think about where I grew up, (CV) and taking Spanish for my foreign language requirement with 75% of my class being native Spanish speakers who were taking ESL for their English class....Don't get me started!!! America is the great melting pot, but I don't know any cook that will accept an ingredient when it wound up in the pot inadvertantly. Make the parents be responsible for their actions. And by the way, where was the INS when they staged all these protests? I would have been walking around asking for green cards.
Posted by His Love & Grace on May 18, 2006 - Thursday 6:27 AMAn RE:
Oh honey, it's even worse now! When did you leave? Unfortunately, our border partrol and ICE weren't allowed to walk in the street and harrass the illegals. They actually have an organization that protects these illegals and our 'discrmination' towards wanting our country back! As always, the American is the criminal!
When I was
growing up here, there was no race issues. I went to Chula Vista High
School and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that I was
a minority. But the difference is that back then, we were all
Americans, be it Mexican-American, African-American, blue, red or
green-American, whatever we were, we were all American. Nowadays these
kids (uneducated punks) are taught that we stole their land and they
have as much right to be here and destroy our land and we do! They
actually believe it which is the amazing part! Instead of worrying
about passing measures that would let the high school seniors pass
without passing the exit exam because of their poor english skills,
they should concentrate on teaching our students the truth....oh no!
Did you hear about the gay history part too? We need to add a
favorable twist to our fellow gay americans who have contrubuted to
history....hmmm....the thing is, back then when they cared about the
country and were contributing positively to history, no one cared about
anyones sexual orientation! I want my country back! 
Sorry, I got off the subject, I should leave that for another post! So here we are back in Chula Vista and the only school my daughters could get in was one that is 78% esl. 25% is spanish speaking ONLY! And they have special classes for that?!?!?!? All the while my english speaking daughter has been struggling in school since kindergarten and they have no help for her....interesting, huh?
How could all this lead to anything but a civil and revolutionary war? What's really interesting is that the politicians are the ones that made us so seperate! All in the name of another unqualified, uninformed vote! Let's hope we all band together and are able to get our country back and start protecting and taking care of our own!
Have a great day girl!
Posted by TruthBrigade.Com on May 18, 2006 - Thursday 6:57 AM
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