Thread: End To 'Birthright Citizenship' Urged

End To 'Birthright Citizenship' Urged

Lancaster New Era (Pennsylvania)
June 8, 2009 Monday
Lancaster, PA

Illegal immigration is a tough issue.

What's the best way to deal with the roughly 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States today?

Do we risk losing needed labor if we crack down hard on people who entered the country illegally?

Can Uncle Sam effectively seal our 2,000-mile-long border with Mexico by erecting walls, hiring border agents and severely sanctioning businesses that employ illegal immigrants?

Which is more unfair: granting amnesty to illegal immigrants who broke laws to come here and work off the books, or punishing them for breaking laws we had little interest in enforcing?

Will we need a steady influx of immigrants - legal and illegal - to help keep financially strapped Social Security and Medicare afloat? (The Treasury Department announced the programs' dismal statistics last month: Medicare will be insolvent by 2017 and Social Security will tank just 20 years later.)

It's a tough issue, which requires a comprehensive solution.

But there's at least one thing that can be done - provided lawmakers display the political will.

HR 1868, a House bill introduced by Rep. Nathan Deal (R-Ga.), would end "birthright citizenship," the granting of citizenship to children who just happen to be born in the U.S., regardless of their parents' status.

Deal, who unsuccessfully tried to get his measure attached to an appropriations measure three years ago, says he chose the bill's number because 1868 is the year the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.

The amendment, aimed at making former slaves full citizens, defined anyone born in the United States as a citizen.

Did the drafters of the amendment mean to include the children of people who come to this country illegally?

Deal highly doubts it.

"I don't think anybody could tell you that ... we would see a time where one out of every 10 births in this country is to an illegal immigrant," said Deal, a candidate for Georgia governor.

Deal's bill would amend the nation's Immigration and Nationality Act to make citizens of any child born in the U.S. as long as at least one of their parents is:

a U.S. citizen or national;

a lawful permanent resident alien who lives here in the United States; or

an alien on active duty in the U.S. armed forces.

U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts, Lancaster County's Republican congressman, thinks that's fair, as do 72 other cosponsors in the House.

Unfortunately, Pitts and Deal are sure to have a hard time convincing the Democratic leadership to go along with the proposal, considering Democrats' ties to influential immigrant-rights groups.

Democrats in Congress, along with President Barack Obama, are insisting on "comprehensive immigration reform" - which is fine, as long as it is truly reform and not simply amnesty wrapped up with a few hundred border security guards.

But Deal's bill is so elegantly simple and fair that it deserves to become law as soon as possible. How about on July 9, the 141st anniversary of the 14th Amendment's ratification?

Deal introduced his bill on April 2, and it was referred to a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee late last month.

Since then, the case for Deal's measure is even more compelling.

A study by the Pew Hispanic Center released in mid-April found the number of children born to illegal immigrant families seems to be growing.

Last year, 4 million children born in the U.S. had at least one parent who was an illegal immigrant, up from 2.7 million children in the same position five years earlier, according to Pew.

That's a big jump.

One way to address this is relatively easy: Make Rep. Deal's bill the law of the land and take away a huge incentive for illegal immigrants to give birth in this country as a way to guarantee U.S. citizenship for their progeny.

Then if they - the children or their parents - want to become U.S. citizens, they can do so legally or not at all.

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/En ... 02&start=1

I can't wait to see how many Democrats come to the common sense middle on this issue. No to AMNESTY!

No National Medical Coverage until this 14th Amendment is FIXED!

Adopt New Zealand's policy of deporting pregnant Aliens.

This won't happen while Dems are in the minority but the Dems are screwing up big time and it is only a matter of time before the Republicans take the majority again and then I (hope) believe they will fix this problem and incentive.

It wasn't to long ago that the Republicans got the mess started. Two of the SAME Democrats and Republicans, YES