Should automatic citizenship for babies born to all non-citizen residents be stopped?

Question

If you are not a citizen of the U.S. but are a legal resident they could fill out papers and file to make the child a U.S. citizen.

If they are just visiting or illegal (no U.S. citizenship) what do you think?

"Love"-they would be citizens of the parents country. A baby born to a U.S. citizen outside of the U.S. is still a citizen of the U.S. because the parent is.

"Lady Shondra" My point exactly.

"LeighAnn" Laws can be changed if we the people insist and elect the right people.

"RG" Thank you, very Informitive, now if we can only get the government to understand that and act on it.

Answer 1

Stop it now. The illegals are taking advantage of something that was not meant to be used this way.

Answer 2

If parents have migrated to the USA legally and are abiding by the laws of the nation regarding citizenship and immigration, the children born here should be birthright citizens. However, it seems unfair that citizenship would be granted automatically for anyone who came into the country illegally or under false pretenses, since citizenship is a reward, a priviledge and a responsibility which requires loyalty and commitment.

Answer 3

Truthfully just because your visiting here and end up having a baby that should not grant the Baby nor the parent citizenship in the United States. It's pretty much getting very out of hand, and it appears most cross the border illegally and set forth to have a child so they can stay! Best answer is send them packing once clean bill of health for delivery!

Answer 4

If the mother is in the country legally, citizenship.
If the mother is in the country illegally then other factors must
be considered before deciding one way or the other.
For example if the Father is a citizen, then I think the baby should be a citizen too.
It depends.
I Cr 13;8a

Answer 5

yes it should be stopped...you cant deport american citizens and i dont know about the rest of you but if we deport their parents im not taking their kids in...my daughter was born in another country but she is a citizen of this country because i am..and her father is...but she is a citizen of that country as well by birth...will she ever go there again more than likely not and i can tell you when we came back to the states she came with us.....doesnt matter i think if they are illegal or visiting they go back to the country they came from..there are no free rides and everyone not an american citizen needs to get off the bus

Answer 6

Birthright citizenship is a myth. The 14th amendment was never ever intended to grant birthright citizenship.
Ever since the subject of Congress taking up Birthright Citizenship have we seen the power of ignorance at work through the media. It is difficult to find any editorial or wire story that correctly gives the reader an honest and accurate historical account of the Fourteenth Amendment in regards to children born to foreign parents within the United States. Most often the media presents a fabled and inaccurate account of just what the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment means.

Recent story lines go something like this: "Currently the Constitution says that a person born in this country is an American citizen. That's it. No caveats." The problem with these sort of statements other than being plainly false is that it reinforces a falsehood that has become viewed as a almost certain fact through such false assertions over time.

Sen. Jacob Howard, who wrote the Fourteenth's Citizenship Clause introduced the clause to the US Senate as follows:

"This amendment which I have offered is simply declaratory of what I regard as the law of the land already, that every person born within the limits of the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, is by virtue of natural law and national law a citizen of the United States. This 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 every other class of persons. "

This statement can be found in the proceedings of the 39th Congress, May 30, 1866 as recorded in the Congressional Globe, page 2890
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?col...
If you read the ensuing debates, it is clear that it was not the intent of the 39th Congress to pass out US citizenship like some cheap carnival prize and that there was considerable discussion as to whether the clause "subject to the jurisdiction of" was strong enough.
So then, what exactly did subject to the jurisdiction mean? Sen. Lyman Trumbull, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, framer of the Thirteenth Amendment told us in clear language what the phrase means under the Fourteenth:

The provision is, that 'all persons born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens.' That means 'subject to the complete jurisdiction thereof.' What do we mean by 'complete jurisdiction thereof?' Not owing allegiance to anybody else. That is what it means.

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."

In short all we need to do is interpret the 14th amendment the way the authors intended. The 39th Congress made it very clear as to what made a citizen. There would have been no debate about the phrase "subject to the jurisdiction of" if their intent was to grant citizenship to everyone as currently interpreted. They would simply have wrote "All persons born in the US are citizens" period.

If pro immigration groups or individuals want to continue in believing the Fourteenth Amendment grants citizenship to anyone born in the country regardless of their allegiance, fine -- but to continue to insist the Fourteenth Amendment supports their fable is both feeble and a disrespect to American history.

Answer 7

YES, YES AND YES. The government has a form for every single thing you can think of except for making a baby an automatic U.S. citizen if born on U.S. soil. If we add enough bureacuracy to this deal, it'll stop.

If the parents are illegally in the U.S., then the baby should be a citizen of whatever country the parents are citizens of. END OF DISCUSSION.

Answer 8

No an illegal immigrants child born in the USA should not be allowed to become a citizen of the USA .

The cost in welfare benefits and medical care are costing the American taxpayer enormously .
Americans can no longer afford health insurance and go without it . Illegals and their anchor babies will have free medical care while the legal American will have to pay.

Legal Americans are losing their jobs and homes while illegals are being employed under the table or with false Id's.

What's up with this picture??????????????

Is the USA government selling out the lively hood of their own working class citizens????????????

Illegal immigration and lack of border security are a very serious problem for the USA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 9

These so-called 'anchor babies' are pawns created by the parents to force a way to gain citizenship for themselves.

I think that children born to illegal immigrants should be sponsored for citizenship by the employers of their parents, or all should be deported and the employers prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Answer 10

Doesn't matter what we think. What does the Supreme Court think?

In 1898 a child born in the US to persons of Chinese citizenship. He worked in the US but visited China and when he tried to re-enter the country in 1895, he was arrested under the Chinese Exclusion Act.

The Supreme Court held that he was a US citizen at birth under the 14th Amendment, unless his parents were foreign diplomats. Period.

End of Story.

Answer 11

Absolutely.
This law in and of itself is an anchor law - it made sense immediately following the Civil War, but this is 2007 - and the law is presently being exploited by any illegal who is able to swim, sneak or otherwise illegally get onto US soil to give birth to a legal US citizen - thus pretty much eliminating the possibility of their deportation.
And, thanks to The Federal Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act - it's all FREE for the taking.