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I feel that while our constitution states that all you need to do to give birth to an American citizen is give birth on our soil, it should be ammended to state that you should be on our soil LEGALLY.
How about those in this country on tourist or any of the many other types of visas? They are here legally. Homeland Security states that on the average single day 680,000 legal aliens are processed at our various points of entry. Perhaps only males should be allowed into the country ... or we should give a pregnancy test to all females before granting entry.
Or did you mean that only the children of bonafide citizens should be considered citizens? Of course that would leave Permanent residents out in the cold. And what about those who have filed applications? Are they allowed to have children while waiting for the backlogged system to grant their applications?
I can just see it now ... A Homeland Security officer in every delivery room asking for a mother-to-be's papers as she's rolled in.
the Japanese should be our mentors and prime example of success on this issue.
Japan allows only 1 way to obtain citizenship:
By descent: Child, whose father is a citizen of Japan, regardless of the child’s country of birth.
I see a couple of huge problems with that ...
First off, making women into second class citizens might be just a bit much.
Secondly, when does it stop? For example: a Japanese citizen goes to another country - has a male child by a prostitute - that child is a Japanese citizen. That child grows up, marries and has children - those children are all Japanese citizens (despite their father never having been to Japan).
What would be the case with all the babies our American servicemen produce with the locals when posted overseas?
It would sure make the boys on spring break very popular with the local girls.
I agree, it is not birthright citizenship of children of immigrants I am against, it is birthright citizenship of children of ILLEGAL immigrants. I feel that while our constitution states that all you need to do to give birth to an American citizen is give birth on our soil, it should be ammended to state that you should be on our soil LEGALLY. If the parent is in this country illegally, isn't the birth, then, illegal as well?
Totally agree.. I think that would also help to stop some of the influx.
First off, making women into second class citizens might be just a bit much.
Secondly, when does it stop? For example: a Japanese citizen goes to another country - has a male child by a prostitute - that child is a Japanese citizen. That child grows up, marries and has children - those children are all Japanese citizens (despite their father never having been to Japan).
What would be the case with all the babies our American servicemen produce with the locals when posted overseas?
It sure doesn't work for me!
the situation you described is valid with current American citizenship laws. how else do you get so many American/Asians (Filipino, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese)?
The law pertaining to this matter:
Child born abroad, one of whose parents is a citizen of the United States who resided in the United States for at least five years before the birth of the child.
No, I don't think someone who is here on vacation should be able to have a baby here and the baby would be a U.S. citizen. (Although under our current law, they would be.) I think you should be a legal U.S. citizen, either born here legally or immigrated here and became a permanent legal U.S. resident in order for the children to be U.S. citizens. Of course, details would need to be ironed out. Many Western countries do not have birthright citizenship and I don't believe our constitution was written with the intent of illegal aliens to use "anchor baby" practices.
What are everyone's thoughts on our country's policy of birthright citizenship?
I think it is absolutely the time to do away with it. Citizenship by birth is being abused massively and fuels more illegality. Essentially this unfortunate legal artifact guarantees a steady influx of random people to the US.
Unfortunately, there's no way to deny citizenship to children of illegal immigrants already born here before today. That's simply because US birth certificates as they are now do not state the immigration status of the parents. When the kid grows up and claims his citizenship it's not going to be plausible to figure out whether the parents were legal or illegal at the time of birth. So the "deport them all" crowd is in for a big disappointment.
But the law must change ASAP and a new format of birth certificates should be established. When the certificate of birth is issued, the parents should present papers establishing their citizenship. If one or both parents are Americans or green card holders-- the child is American. Otherwise the birth certificate should state that the child has no known citizenship. It should be up to the parents then to go to the consulate of their home country and make their child a citizen, based on whatever laws their home country has in place...The children whose American birth certificates state no citizenship can then easily be deported with their parents with no possibility to ever appeal.
Children of temporary legal residents (students, tourists, workers etc) should not be given American citizehship by birth. However, if one or both parents ever achieves American citizenship or permanent residency, the child should be given American citizenship. This would curb "pregnancy tourism" while at the same time giving a guarantee to the legal foreigners that should they gain citizenship or permanent residence their children will not be in any kind of legal limbo.
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the Congress in anywhere near taking on this issue. Which is tragic, since the problems with illegal immigration would be greately diminished if illegal familes could not claim any legal status in the US.
Last edited by sergeyn; 08-30-2007 at 12:56 PM..
Reason: Content added
Just a note ... this isn't simply a law that would have to change, it is our constitution! You remember that pesky thing ... the very foundation of our country.
BTW ... a child born to illegals under your rules (not a US citizen) could not be deported to another country since that country likely wouldn't recognize them as citizens either! You not only have the US Constitution to deal with but also International law and treaties.
These solutions are never as easy as we wish because the problems are always much more complex than we believe.
Just a note ... this isn't simply a law that would have to change, it is our constitution! You remember that pesky thing ... the very foundation of our country.
BTW ... a child born to illegals under your rules (not a US citizen) could not be deported to another country since that country likely wouldn't recognize them as citizens either! You not only have the US Constitution to deal with but also International law and treaties.
These solutions are never as easy as we wish because the problems are always much more complex than we believe.
1. Consitution can be changed. The process of changing the Consitution is called "amendment". There have been 27 of these things already, nothing prevents us from having 28.
2. Most countries guarantee citizenship to children of their citizens, no matter where the birth took place. So in most cases, if the parents don't want their child to be a stateless person they can just go to their embassy and fix the situation. If there are any countries where a child of a citizen is not a citizen, this is not our problem. Send the child back with the parents anyway and let the border patrol in their home country sort this all out.
3. No international treaty prohibits deportation of illegals. And no international treaty can tell a country who it should consider a citizen.
Last edited by sergeyn; 08-30-2007 at 01:27 PM..
Reason: grammar
Stop it now and make it retroactive. No one born here should be an American citizen UNLESS their mother is here legally.
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