Campaign 2016: Illegal immigration, birthright citizenship & The 14th Amendment
Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Donald Trump have the drive-by media and the professional left in a tizzy over their proposals to end birthright citizenship — the policy that makes children of illegal aliens born in the US legal citizens of the United States.
Lefties and the media point to the 14th amendment as their evidence. Here is what that amendment actually says:
Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868.
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. 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.
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representativesin Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
This was about helping the country recover and move on following The War Between The States. Modern-day judicial activists have gone out into left-field to stretch it to fit their agendas.
The Center for Immigration Studies put together a piece on why birthright citizenship needs to be ended post-haste:
[…] Among the findings
Only 30 of the world’s 194 countries grant automatic citizenship to children born to illegal aliens.
Of advanced economies, Canada and the United States are the only countries that grant automatic citizenship to children born to illegal aliens.
No European country grants automatic citizenship to children of illegal aliens.
The global trend is moving away from automatic birthright citizenship as many countries that once had such policies have ended them in recent decades.
14th Amendment history seems to indicate that the Citizenship Clause was never intended to benefit illegal aliens nor legal foreign visitors temporarily present in the United States.
The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the U.S.-born children of permanent resident aliens are covered by the Citizenship Clause, but the Court has never decided whether the same rule applies to the children of aliens whose presence in the United States is temporary or illegal.
Some eminent scholars and jurists have concluded that it is within the power of Congress to define the scope of the Citizenship Clause through legislation and that birthright citizenship for the children of temporary visitors and illegal aliens could likely be abolished by statute without amending the Constitution.[…]
And how is this policy of birthright citizenship impacting our country? Let’s see:
[…] Between 300,000 and 400,000 children are born to illegal immigrants in the United States every year. Put another way, as many as one out of 10 births in the United States is to an illegal immigrant mother. All of these children are considered by the executive branch of the U.S. government to be U.S. citizens who enjoy the same rights and are entitled to the same benefits as the children of U.S. citizens.
The population of U.S.-born children with illegal alien parents has expanded rapidly in recent years from 2.3 million in 2003 to 4 million in 2008; since these figures do not include children who are 18 years of age or older nor those who are married, the actual figure is somewhat larger.
The two citizenship benefits that have drawn the most attention in the birthright citizenship debate are, first, food assistance and other welfare benefits to which a family of illegal aliens would not otherwise have access, and second, the ability of the child when he grows up to legalize his parents, and also to bring into the United States his foreign-born spouse and any foreign-born siblings. The sponsored spouse can, in turn, sponsor her own foreign-born parents and siblings, and the siblings can, in turn, sponsor their own foreign-born spouses, and so on, generating a virtually never-ending and always-expanding migration chain.
Because having a child on U.S. soil can cement an immigrant’s presence in the United States, provide access to welfare benefits, and ultimately initiate chain migration of the child’s extended family and in-laws, children born to illegal aliens and legal temporary visitors are sometimes referred to as “anchor babies.” These benefits have contributed to the growth of a “birth tourism” industry.
The voices calling for a change to the current application of the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment are quite diverse and are not limited to activists and policymakers. The influential Circuit Court Judge Richard Posner held in a recent court decision that the policy of granting automatic birthright citizenship for children of illegal and temporary aliens is one that “Congress should rethink” and that the United States “should not be encouraging foreigners to come to the United States solely to enable them to confer U.S. citizenship on their future children.”[…]
We need to stop pussyfooting around here. This policy is breaking our country and sending our society and culture into a spiral down the drain.
Cruz and Trump have done a real service making this a part of the debate as we select our next president. THIS is important.
Getting a handle on this invasion of our country by the swarm of illegal aliens is one of the key issues in this election. We need to work hard to nominate someone who represents America’s interests, not Mexico’s interests.
Two thoughts….
1. This part of your post…”This was about helping the country recover and move on following The War Between The States. Modern-day judicial activists have gone out into left-field to stretch it to fit their agendas.”…..Ironic that these hypocrites are the same ones who would tell you that “exchanges run by the State” doesn’t mean what you think it means.
2. I’m not sure that the immigration situation hasn’t become so incontrovertible that it would take a military coup and suspension of habeas corpus to restore the country,
The 14th Amendment has simply been disastrous for the historic American nation. It was illegally rammed through by the Radical Republicans while the post-war conservative Southern Democrats were out of power. Since then, liberal judges (mostly Republican ones) have used it to thoroughly implement the radical left’s liberal agenda on the country. Birthright citizenship needs to end; however Jeb Bush and the GOP Establishment will never let it happen. It is truly a sad state of affairs and will eventually destroy the country as we know it.
So, Trump was RIGHT. And illegal immigration might just be the ONE ISSUE that he needs to win the White House. Why?
Almost nothing else angers more REAL Americans than (1) a LEFT that wants all the illegals possible as FUTURE VOTERS, and (2) a RINO RIGHT that wants illegals for cheap labor, and (3) POLITICIANS who promise to DO SOMETHING about illegals and NEVER DO, and (4) we REAL Americans are left with fewer, lower-paying jobs and a bigger TAX BILL to boot!!!
No more birthright citizenship- send ’em home!
No more unguarded, unfenced border!
No more illegals left here forever, whether it’s 11 million or 30 million- send ’em home!
I’LL VOTE FOR THAT!!!
Trump is right, but I suspect in the end the GOP Establishment will find a way to destroy him–as well as Cruz and any other conservative who dares challenge them. Ultimately, the historic American nation will be lost. In fact, it’s probably gone even now. Most Republicans in Washington are privately very pleased with Obama’s actions and policies.
You can bet that at the right time, all of the illegal aliens who work for Trump-owned companies (assuming there are some who got through in the event he has used E-verify, which is another question) will come out of the woodwork and scream about his hypocrisy.
This issue may be the biggest driver of the 2016 election. Lawlessness in general is under examination and those who pay the bills are getting more unhappy every day.
Jobs, taxes, crime, health care, education, national security, illegal immigration greatly affects them all.
I would gladly pay the deportation fee. We spend more than that every year, and the cost is growing.
Like him or not, Donald Trump has hit a nerve with this issue. And, it’s not just with Republican primary voters, it’s across the board.
A recent YouGov poll shows that 64% favor a border fence with Mexico, including a plurality of Dems, blacks and Hispanics.
Why would a plurality of blacks be in favor of this? Who do you think blacks are losing their jobs to (especially in the service and fast food industries). If you picked: “Eastern Mongolians”, you lose on Jeopardy.
“But Rad, they’re just coming here to work”.
The Center For Immigration says that 51% of immigrant families are on some type of welfare (Medicaid, food stamps, school lunches & housing assistance), as opposed to 30% of native born families. 3/4 of those “immigrant” households are headed by an illegal alien. (I choose to call them “illegal invaders” because that’s what they are).
The above article’s depiction of a US government food coupon with Hussein’s picture on it prophetic. It also mentions that the USA is the only country in the world that grants citizenship to the child of an illegal alien.
For those few bleeding heart liberal posters on here who regularly puke their pabulum over my posts (and you know who you are) I’m sure you’re smart enough to Google my sources if you like.
But then again, that takes some intelligence and ambition!