Citizenship for children of illegal immigrants
By Misbah Karim | Thu, 06/18/2009 - 22:29
A large number of people think that as per the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution and the current complex misinterpretation of its birthright citizenship phrase, any child who is born on American soil is granted automatic US citizenship.
The fact is that it is not true and the Congress never intended to do so.
In spite of their parents being lawfully present in the US, children of diplomats and other public ministers of overseas nations who are born in the US are not granted US citizenship.
The pending legislation of Georgia Rep. Nathan Deal that would grant citizenship to children born in the US to illegal parents will therefore not pass.
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution was never intended to grant the pride to illegal immigrants of becoming parents of an American citizen who would then provide protection from punishment for violation of immigration laws of the US, or as a lucky charm who would enable his or her parents to access welfare services of the country.
The realty of the 21st century is that not only is the United States taking maximum number of legal immigrants in the world, it is also suffering from maximum number of illegal immigrants than any other country. When these illegal immigrants are captured and face deportation, they say that they cannot be deported as they have an American child.
Polly Price, Law Professor of Emory University, correctly wrote that politically not a single person intended to grant equal citizenship rights only on account of birth in the country.
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