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Making Citizenship a Birthright

The Senator from Louisiana and Chairman of the US Senate Border Security and Enforcement, David Vitter, in his February 15th 2011 CNN.COM article, "Close the 'Birthright Citizenship' Loophole," argues that the government should stop giving automatic citizenship status to babies born in the USA to two illegal immigrant parents as they do now. While there may be some validity to his argument, newborns should not be accountable for their parents' shortcomings in the immigration system; therefore they should be permitted citizenship as reflected in the 14th Amendment.

This amendment clearly states that, "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. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the 'privileges or immunities' of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." Therefore, as legal residents of America, just as they are regulated by the rules and laws of this nation and are subject to the countries' law enforcement and judgment, they should equally enjoy the privileges and immunities of the USA along with their fellow Americans.

Vitter argues that, "The 14th amendment does not say that all persons born on US soil are citizens," however the amendment clearly states: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of The United States of America." As a US citizen by birth, the child is entitled to the same rights and privileges as any other US born child because they are registered as being born in the USA. Their allegiance is with the USA and as such that is all they know from birth. Vitter raises a controversial point, in my opinion, when he states that, "Native Americans and their children did not become US Citizens until congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924." History states that while Lewis and Clark were the first Americans to see much of what would become the western USA, those same lands had long been occupied by native peoples. Therefore, the land rightfully belonged to those who occupied it first - in this case the Native Americans - and they should not have had to wait for such an Act to be passed by congress to become USA citizens. The Framers of the constitution intended to exclude Native Americans, but it's been reinterpreted to exclude all foreigners even those on visas and also tourists.

I partially agree with Vitter when he states, "When it comes to U.S Citizenship, it is not just where an individual is born that matters; the circumstances of a person's birth and the nationality of his or her parents are of equal importance." However, while it is of great importance to take into account where the baby's parents hail from, it is unreasonable to try to link the child's documentation to the many different countries that its parents could potentially come from. Some countries have sensible governments and laws that would make it possible officially to register their nationals in both their home countries and abroad by liaising with American authorities to obtain certain things like passports, birth certificates and identification documents. But through experience, as I come from Africa, those would be some of the most difficult and costly procedures to attempt on both governments parts. Not only would it incur high costs on both countries' governments to produce these documents, but also the possibility exists that they may not be as reliable as USA requirements would expect –particularly from third world countries. Some countries may not have legit facilities that can produce these official documents without corruption and bribery and or forging. In addition to the difficulty of trying to obtain these documents as proof of the parents' nationality, it raises another question of how the government will deal with a similar case scenario.

Vitter goes on to point out that he recently introduced legislation that a person born in the USA to illegal immigrants does not automatically gain citizenship unless at least one parent is a legal citizen. Does it then change the fact that the child has been born in USA regardless of where the parents come from? No. Had they been born else where outside of USA, it is guaranteed that their birth would be registered in their country of birth and they would owe their allegiance to that country. Unlike many African cultures, where the children are identified with the same country of their father and grandfather's birth, the child is said to be from that country. This is not the case with America, so it should not matter where the parents are from and whether they are legal or not.

As if Immigration does not have enough back-log already in dealing with change of visas, issuing visas, etc, Vitter is adamant that "Closing this loophole will not prevent anyone from becoming a naturalized citizen." He goes on to say, "What it will do is ensure that he or she has to go through the same process as anyone else born of foreign national parents who wants to become a citizen." Not only is this process long, but it is also costly to the United States government and unnecessarily wastes resources. Being a foreign national myself, I have had experience in trying to obtain visas and other official documents since my arrival in the USA; it is not an easy process. In addition, I have had the opportunity to assist a friend of mine, who is also a foreign national, study for the test to become a US citizen. She succeeded, but unfortunately an American counterpart failed. To make a long story short, while the citizenship test is difficult, demanding and consumes a lot of time and money, it only adds to the overload of work the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) has to deal with.

The children born in the USA are citizens of the USA unless they reach the age of 18 and choose to denounce their American citizenship and follow through with their parents' citizenship. They should not be forced to associate themselves with unfamiliar countries nor face the risk of deportation as a result of their parents' mishaps. Consequently, this could result in a vulnerability of those who feel they lack a secure nationality.

Immigrants contribute to the workforce immensely and for the most part pay their way through everything and generally mind their own business. Even if they wanted to dupe the government of its funding or resources, they couldn't because the laws against both legal and illegal immigrants have been restricted; there aren't many loopholes to allow for misdemeanors or abuse of USA resources. Does that then mean they are to be stripped of American citizenship status? Apart from the immigrants who deliberately enter the USA through border-jumping and have no intentions of respecting America's immigration laws, a good percentage of the illegal immigrants were once legal with good intentions, but due to circumstances beyond their control decided or were forced into becoming illegal. For example, some people have been away from their home countries for so long that their families passed away and they opted to remain in the USA to avoid poverty and hardship. In addition to that, they have established a home, jobs, friends and children.

To offer dual citizenship, not full citizenship, would placate anti-14th Amendment supporters by not granting full citizenship to children with foreign "illegal" parents. Also, it should specify what privileges they can or cannot enjoy as a result. To think that there may one day come a point where some government officials will be standing at the maternity ward doors asking every woman and her spouse for their passports or identification to establish their immigration status is unacceptable; if found in violation, they risk being whisked away to the airport to be deported as soon as the baby is born. I can not begin to fathom that.

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