Birth-right Citizenship

Submitted by Casey Johnston on Thu, 08/16/2007 - 11:27am.

Every day, foreign mothers cross the U.S. border to have their children born on American soil, safe in the knowledge that their baby will be granted automatic citizenship. The foreign mother is then granted the right to stay and work in the United States, all the while free from taxation. Her "American" child is granted numerous government benefits and goes to public school. This doesn’t seem like a crime until you look at the facts. It costs approximately $370 per student to pay for public education, a cost that is covered by the government through money from taxpayers. While hardworking Americans are struggling to pay municipal taxes that will ultimately fund their child’s education, the illegal mother, whose child benefits from the same public institution, gets by without paying the government more than a sales tax on certain goods and services. From her financial perspective, the illegal mother is giving her child a free education. In actuality, however, legal taxpayers are paying for an illegal alien to live in the United States and get a free education.

The Urban Institute estimated that the cost of educating illegal aliens was $3.1 billion in 1993. Factor in the tremendous surge in the population of illegal aliens since then, and a more accurate cost would be upwards of $5 billion. This estimate does not take into account the additional costs of bilingual education or other special educational needs, or states with a lower concentration of illegal immigrants. It has been estimated that there are 287,000 to 363,000 children born to illegal aliens each year in the U.S.

What does this mean for the common American taxpayer: higher taxes? The federal government has control over immigration law for the United States. By failing to address this issue, the funds that our government provides to these illegal alien children amounts to a virtual tax on U.S. citizens. Ultimately, Congress is rewarding illegal aliens and taxing citizens who choose to follow the rules and immigrate legally.

Congress should pass a law according to the Constitution Amendment XIV, Section 5, which excludes children born of illegal aliens from birth-right citizenship.

http://www.progressiveu.org/142722-birt ... itizenship