About Amendment No. 14

Vallejo Times Herald (California)
October 9, 2010 Saturday
By Thomas Jacobson

When Americans hear of the illegal immigration problem we're having, do we realize how much of a problem it really is? And do we know how our laws have been misinterpreted to facilitate this problem?

I'm talking about the 14th Amendment to our U.S. Constitution, specifically the first sentence of Section 1, which reads: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States..."

For those who don't know why the 14th Amendment was created, it was ratified, in the year 1868, to ensure citizenship for the newly emancipated African Americans in our country.

The 14th Amendment was extended to the children of non-citizen legal immigrants born in the United States to now be deemed as new citizens (US v Wong Kim Ark 169, US 649, 189.

But there has never been a Supreme Court decision citing that children of illegal immigrants born in this country are automatically citizens!

These parents, as should be their newly born, are citizens of a foreign country.

They are certainly not under U.S. jurisdiction ("Subject to the jurisdiction thereof") as cited in the amendment.

Their native country has a claim of allegiance on these children, and logically precludes automatic citizenship.

How is it that we, as a country, feel it appropriate to take citizens away from other nations? And be willing to pay the bill?

Let's take a look at exactly what we're talking about.

They call these newly born babies "anchor babies"-- an offspring of an illegal immigrant or other non-citizen.

These children may instantly qualify for welfare and other state and local benefit programs.

Additionally, with the passage of the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, the child may sponsor other family members for entry into the United States when he/she reaches the age of 21 (called "Chain Migration").

In 1994, California paid for 74,987 deliveries to illegal alien mothers at the total cost of $215.2 million.

Illegal alien mothers accounted for 36 percent of all Medi-Cal funded births in California that year, and now count substantially more than half!

The Federation of American Immigration Reform estimates that in California, the illegal alien population (2007) is 3,470,000; the cost of illegal aliens (2005) is $10,540,000,000 (yes that's billions), and estimates the overall U.S. population of illegal aliens at 13 million. Do the math!

Other estimated uncompensated costs to California taxpayers (2004) are $1.5 billion for incarceration, $1.5 billion for medical expenses, $3.2 billion in education costs, and costs of educating their siblings born in the United States and additional $4.5 billion.

And one more thing to consider. FAIR estimates projected annual fiscal costs to California taxpayers for emergency medical care, education and incarceration resulting if an amnesty is adopted for illegal residents at a staggering $30.727 billion by year 2020!

The original intent of the 14th Amendment was clearly not to facilitate illegal aliens defying U.S. law to obtain citizenship for their offspring, nor to obtain benefits at American taxpayers' expense.

We, as taxpayers, should demand this outrageous practice be immediately stopped, and stopped now and forever.

Our state, our country, cannot continue to overlook the injustice being done in the name of our 14th Amendment.

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