What Is Birthright Citizenship?
Birthright citizenship is a legal principle granting automatic citizenship to anyone born within a country’s borders, regardless of their parents’ nationality or immigration status. It’s granted under the principle of jus soli (right of land).
The alternative to birthright citizenship is determining citizenship based on the nationality or citizenship of one or both parents. A person born outside the US can be granted citizenship if his/her parents are US citizens under the principle of jus sanguinis (right of blood).
Mostly in the Americas will you find Birthright Citizenship. In all, only 33 countries in the world offer Birthright Citizenship, and in some cases that citizenship is not granted until they turn 18 years of age. The United States has only had Birthright Citizenship since 1868 when the 14th Amendment was ratified.
“All persons born or naturalised in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,”
The 14th Amendment was introduced after the Civil War to guarantee citizenship for former slaves and free African Americans. The clause has been interpreted by legal scholars to mean that anyone born in the US, with a few exceptions automatically becomes a US citizen, regardless of their parents’ nationality or immigration status.
Time for Change
In recent years, many countries with some form of Birthright Citizenship have either changed or revoked Birthright Citizenship. Many countries are requiring that at least one parent be a citizen of the country, and the other parent not classified as an illegal migrant. Th4ese countries have discovered that the citizens of their countries dc not agree with Birthright Citizenship and do not wan t problems and burdens that come with those who used Birthright to bypass legal migration. In Ireland, a recall vote o the matter resulted in 79% calling for Birthright Citizenship to end.
The abuse of Birthright Citizenship is worse here in the United States. Besides what are referred to as Tourist Births, people coming to the United States to have their babies, there are people illegally entering the United States and using their children born here as anchors, allowing them to continu4e living here because their child is a citizen. And while many of these illegal immigrants work and support themselves, there are a lot of illegal immigrants who are managing to tap into our social programs, increasing the burden placed on the taxpayers of this nation.
Solution?
How about we do what many other countries around the world are doing. Birthright Citizenship is only available to the children where one parent is a legal resident or citizen of the United States, and the other parent is not classified or identified as an illegal migrant. If the parents do not reside inside the United States legally.
It is time to control the flow of illegal migrants into this country. This is but one way to work on the problem. Areas of which support illegal migrants, who have a high number of illegal migrants have increase crime issues, and their social program are an unneeded strain on the money they have available to tak4e care of their legal residents.
