if an illegal immigrant has a child here while they are illegal does the child become an American citizen ?

Answer 1

If the child is born on US soil -- they are a US citizen.

Citizenship of the parent does not matter.

14th Amendment, Section 1: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."

Answer 2

From what I've seen yes, but they give you a nasty little choice of living the child behind or taking it with you back to your country, and if you file papers for the child at a later age, it can very well take 18 years more to allow reentry to the USA for that child, when it comes to hand outs the American immigration service has never been a big giver, no matter what the American public sees on CNN its all propaganda and politics, don't file anything don't say anything just hold on the the birth certificate and mind your business.

Answer 3

As poster above pointed out
14th Amendment, Section 1: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."

That clause has been interpreted to mean everybody gets to be a citizen, all you have to do is be born here. Unfortunatey that is not a correct interpretation and is NOT what the authors intended because it ignores the significance of the phrase "and subject to the jurisdiction of"

Just a casual search on the 14th amendment reveals this:

During Reconstruction Senator Jacob Howard participated in debate over the first clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, arguing for including the phrase and SUBJECT TO THE JURISDICTION thereof specifically because he wanted to make clear that the simple accident of birth in the United States was NOT SUFFICIENT to justify citizenship. Howard said:

[The 14th amendment] will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the government of the United States, but will include very other class of person.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_M._Howard.

If that is not convincing enough, consider this:
Sen. Howard left no doubt what the clause meant in 1868: "The Constitution as now amended, forever withholds the right of citizenship in the case of accidental birth of a child belonging to foreign parents within the limits of the country."

What does it all mean?

In a nutshell, it means this: The Constitution of the United States does not grant citizenship at birth to just anyone who happens to be born within American borders. It is the allegiance (complete jurisdiction) of the child’s birth parents at the time of birth that determines the child’s citizenship-not geographical location. If the United States does not have complete jurisdiction, for example, to compel a child’s parents to Jury Duty–then the U.S. does not have the total, complete jurisdiction demanded by the Fourteenth Amendment to make their child a citizen of the United States by birth. How could it possibly be any other way?

Answer 4

Yes

Answer 5

Anyone born on American soil, is a American period. Nothing else matters. The parents can be from space, but the baby would still be a American ET.

Answer 6

yes the child would be an american citizen.

Answer 7

Uh, yeah! Thats part of the problem. Pregnant women for years have waited on the border, then crossed when they go into labor. Free us ER visst. Instant citizen! Then, you cant make me leave my baby!!! Sounds fair, right??????????? We all pay for this with our tax dollars, while this mother has paid no taxes.

Answer 8

Unfortunately yes

Answer 9

yes, they are American Citizens.
I agree with you "coragryph."

And it is sort of like you have to be a born and raised US Citizen if you want to run for or to President of this country.

Answer 10

yes american citizen because it was born in america.