Thread: 14th amendment tears families apart

14th amendment tears families apart and not our immigration laws.

The 14the amendment separates children from their mothers who are citizens of other countries and it has to be amended? A child born in this country to a citizen of Mexico should be a Mexican citizen also. The 14the amendment is unfair to the child and the mother. It is inhuman because it do separate a child from it’s mother.

I believe the 14the amendment has been incorrectly interpreted because it must have been know by our forefathers that if it was meant to be interpreted as it has been concerning foreign born mother who are in the country illegally, it would cause many problems. And it was never intended to apply to illegal immigrants.

Can the 14th amendment be amended?
An amendment is a change to the 1. constitution of a nation or a state. In jurisdictions with "rigid" or "entrenched" constitutions amendments require a special procedure different from that used for enacting ordinary laws. Many countries have their own rules, laws, and rights that apply to their national (or government's) constitution.
In addition, many constitutions require that an amendment receive the votes of a minimum absolute number of members, rather than simply the support of those present at a meeting of the legislature which is in quorum. For example, the German "Basic Law" may be amended with the consent of a majority of two-thirds in both the Bundestag and Bundesrat. The constitution of Brazil may be amended with the consent of both houses of Congress by a majority of three-fifths

Originally Posted by dyehard39

14th amendment tears families apart and not our immigration laws.

The 14the amendment separates children from their mothers who are citizens of other countries and it has to be amended? A child born in this country to a citizen of Mexico should be a Mexican citizen also. The 14the amendment is unfair to the child and the mother. It is inhuman because it do separate a child from it’s mother.

I believe the 14the amendment has been incorrectly interpreted because it must have been know by our forefathers that if it was meant to be interpreted as it has been concerning foreign born mother who are in the country illegally, it would cause many problems. And it was never intended to apply to illegal immigrants.

Can the 14th amendment be amended?
An amendment is a change to the 1. constitution of a nation or a state. In jurisdictions with "rigid" or "entrenched" constitutions amendments require a special procedure different from that used for enacting ordinary laws. Many countries have their own rules, laws, and rights that apply to their national (or government's) constitution.
In addition, many constitutions require that an amendment receive the votes of a minimum absolute number of members, rather than simply the support of those present at a meeting of the legislature which is in quorum. For example, the German "Basic Law" may be amended with the consent of a majority of two-thirds in both the Bundestag and Bundesrat. The constitution of Brazil may be amended with the consent of both houses of Congress by a majority of three-fifths

I don't want to seem negative but Good luck....

If the 14th Amendment is not eliminated from the Constitution, and the government insists on claiming babies that are born of non-citizens in the U.S. are U.S. citizens...then for the sake of the family, send the illegal parents (with their American born babies) back to their home land. When the child is 18 or 21, he/she can claim their U.S. citizenship at that time. Before the U.S. born child can sponsor their family for any type of U.S. visa, the child (now 18 or 21) must be be fluent in English, proficeint in U.S. History, have a clean criminal record and be self supporting.

Anchor Babies and Interpreting the 14th Amendment

It is well known that a person born in the United States is an automatic citizen regardless of the mother's citizenship status. However, the United States is unusual in its offer of citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil. Only a few European countries still grant automatic citizenship at birth. The United Kingdom and Australia repealed their U.S. style policy in the 1980s after witnessing abuses similar to those plaguing the U.S. today. Why does the United States continue to allow a practice subject to widespread fraud? The answer lies in how American jurisprudence has interpreted the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

The 14th Amendment was added to the Constitution as part of the post Civil War reforms aimed at addressing injustices to African Americans. It states that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States" and was crafted so that state governments could never deny citizenship to anyone born in the United States. However, when the amendment was crafted, the United States had no immigration policy, and thus the authors saw no need to state explicitly, what they believed was understood. The phrase "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" was intended to exclude from automatic citizenship American-born persons whose allegiance to the United States was not complete. In the case of illegal aliens who are temporarily or unlawfully in the United States, because their native country has a claim of allegiance to the child, the completeness of the allegiance to the United States is impaired and logically precludes automatic citizenship."Every Person born within the limits of the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, is by virtue of natural law and national law a citizen of the United States. This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the Government of the United States, but will include every other class of persons.
Senator Jacob Howard, Co-author of the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment, 1866.

The Price We Pay
The Urban Institute estimates that the cost of educating an estimated 800,000 illegal alien school children in the nation's seven states with the highest concentration of illegals was $3.1 billion in 1993 (extrapolated to $4.6 billion in 1996 by FAIR), but this estimate does not at all take into account the additional costs of bilingual education or other special educational needs.
It is estimated that the number of children born to illegal aliens each year is 165,000. This figure is based on the crude birth rate of the total foreign-born population (33 birth per 1000) and the size of the illegal alien population (five million).
In 1994, California paid for 74,987 deliveries to illegal alien mothers, at a total cost of $215.2 million (an average of $2,842 per delivery). Illegal alien mothers accounted for 36 percent of all Medi-Cal funded births in California that year.

What This All Means and What Can Be Done
Higher Taxes: The federal government has control over immigration law for the United States. By not addressing this abuse, the funds that state and local governments must provide to anchor babies amounts to a virtual tax on U.S. citizens to subsidize illegal aliens.

Disrespect for the rule of law: By not closing this loophole, the federal government in effect rewards law-breakers and punishes those who have chosen to follow the rules and immigrate legally. Allowing illegal aliens to give birth to American citizens, in effect, makes citizenship a license for welfare. [Peter Brimelow. National Review, April 7, 1997.]

The present guarantee under American law of automatic birthright citizenship to the children of illegal aliens can operate...as one more incentive to illegal migration and violation by nonimmigrant aliens already here[.] When this attraction is combined with the powerful lure of the expanded entitlements conferred upon citizen children and their families by the modern welfare state, the total incentive effect of birthright citizenship may well become significant.
Profs. Peter Schuck and Rogers Smith, "Consensual Citizenship," Chronicles, July 1992.

Congressional action warranted: The 14th Amendment stipulates that Congress has the power to enforce its provisions by enactment of legislation and the power to enforce a law is necessarily accompanied by the authority to interpret that law. Therefore, an act of Congress stating its interpretation of the 14th Amendment, as not to include the offspring of illegal aliens, would fall within Congress's prerogative.