The whole Birthright-Citizenship argument is based upon ignorance and the lessons of history forgotten. It’s sad that America, and its legislators thought to be schooled in the Constitution and the Rule of Law, have fallen to the place where they do not understand its own laws or history.
Let’s address the subject anecdotally first. You cannot cross the American-Canadian border, from American into Canada, without a valid passport. To do so is illegal. Neither can you cross the American-Mexican border, from America into Mexico, without a valid passport. Again, to do so is illegal. Which leads us to the fact that a person cannot legally cross into America from Canada or Mexico without the proper authorization. To do so makes that person a lawbreaker and, thus, an “illegal alien”.
Let’s look at the so-called Birthright-Citizenship argument derived from a misunderstanding of the 14th Amendment.
The first thing to understand is that the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were collectively referred to as the Slave Amendments, because they were crafted and ratified to deal with the errors of slavery.
In other words, while the slaves had been declared free, there were still those that tried to deny them and their children the benefits of US citizenship. The first paragraph of Section 1 of the 14th Amendment addresses the subject of citizenship…
“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…”
To parse that out, I would draw specific attention to the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof”. In other words, the words preceding the phrase in question, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States”, and the words following the phrase under consideration, “are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside”, are incumbent upon the individual meeting the requirements of being “subject to the jurisdiction thereof”.
Let’s apply the above ideas to a real-world scenario. Anyone sneaking into Canada or Mexico, from America, without a passport or the proper authorization, has not subjected himself to the “jurisdiction thereof” of Canada or Mexico and is thus subject to arrest, and is in violation of the laws of those respective countries and thus present in those countries illegally. That being the case, such person does not possess the rights of law-abiding citizens or guests.
Now to the 14th Amendment. Nobody in the crafting of the 14th amendment was thinking that the children of lawbreaking illegals that had sneaked into the country needed to be awarded citizenship and afforded the rights of citizenship. In fact, the newborn children of foreign dignitaries who, BTW, were here legally on assignment, did not have citizenship conferred upon them.
The conclusion of all this is that “illegal immigrants”, who have broken America’s laws and entered the country illegally, some just to bear their children here, are not addressed in the 14th Amendment. The illegals in question, have skirted the “jurisdiction thereof” of both the United States and the individual states wherein they have taken up illegal residence, and thus are not the subjects of citizenship.
As always, please, Change My Mind!
Change My Mind! 