Funny, they left out ILLEGAL in this sentence.
Posted on 03/02/2005 9:38:45 AM PST by Happy2BMe
Bill would deny U.S. citizenship to children of illegal immigrants
A bill recently introduced in Congress would deny U.S. citizenship to children born to illegal immigrants. Supporters said the bill, called the Citizenship Reform Act of 2005, would be a good way to control the number of people who have the right to claim citizenship ---- and the rights and benefits that come with it. Opponents said the measure was "extreme" and would be likely to face constitutional challenges.
An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 children are born to illegal immigrants in the United States each year, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, a policy and research group that advocates for stricter immigration controls.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group that also supports stricter policies, estimated that California spends about $7.7 billion each year to educate about 1 million children of illegal immigrants.
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"Citizenship means you have some stake in this country; it's not just an accident of geography," said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman of the federation, which supports the measure.
However, immigrant-rights groups say that citizenship is a fundamental right that cannot be taken away by Congress.
"Citizenship belongs to a person wherever they are born," said Katherine Cullion, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, a Latino rights group. "The most basic, fundamental right is the right to citizenship in the country where you were born."
Advocates for and against the measure, which has surfaced in various forms before, said the bill is unlikely to go far in Congress. The bill is now in the House Judiciary Committee. No hearing on the bill has been scheduled.
"This is really a perennial bill; it comes up each spring," said Angela Kelley, deputy director of the National Immigration Forum, an immigrant-rights advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. "It gets a handful of co-sponsors and never sees the light of day."
If enacted, the bill would stipulate that children born in the United States would be considered American citizens only if born to parents who are citizens or legal residents living in the country. Under current law, any children born in the country can claim American citizenship.
The bill was introduced last month by Georgia Republican Rep. Nathan Deal and was co-sponsored by 16 other representatives, including Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach; Rep. Gary Miller, R-Diamond Bar; and Tom Tancredo, R-Colorado.
Anti-illegal immigrant groups, such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform, say immigration, legal and illegal, is largely responsible for a population explosion that could lead to unprecedented social, economic and environmental problems.
"Massive population growth has and will continue to have a profound impact on the lives of all Americans," said Dan Stein, president of the federation. The group released a study this week that indicated more than half of the nation's population growth over the last 35 years is due to immigration.
However, Steven Camarota, the Center for Immigration Studies' director of research, said the citizenship bill itself will not solve the nation's illegal immigration problem. Without immigration enforcement elsewhere, such as at the border and at work sites, denying citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants would only make the number of illegal immigrants grow.
"By itself, it doesn't move the ball forward very much, if at all," Camarota said.
Funny, they left out ILLEGAL in this sentence.
Here's some interpretation. The 14th does not say "shall be citizens," it says "are citizens." It only addresses those non-citizens born in the US at the time it was ratified, i.e., former slaves. That is the context in which it was ratified (post-emancipation) and the reason for which it was ratified (conferring citizenship upon a group that was formerly "other persons"). The citizenship clause was not designed to have force into the future, but to redress a wrong of the past. If you read the rest of the article, it says "shall," not "will," so the first clause is unique in that respect.
I OPPOSED ALL ILLEGAL immigration, and have no problem doing whatever it takes, on both the supply and demand side, to end illegals.
I favor ENGLISH ONLY in classrooms and public places. I love immigrants: this is a nation built on immigrants, including fine Mexican immigrants---but they assimilated (more slowly in the past than now, but the technology now means they should assimilate even faster than they do).
I like Tom T, and think he made a stupid comment about Mecca---that only hurt us. But his immigration proposals are pretty much on target
I totally agree with your above three paragraphs, but the tancredinistas have burned some bridges, like the leaders of tancredo's PAC, the buchanan shake down team of pat and bay.
Only if tom tancredo would STFU and work with his collegues, but I don't think tom tancredo or his minion happy would be to happy about that.
There would be no purpose in their life(and PAC donations).
D'oh! I got drawn into a zombie thread.
bttt!
Is deportation of illegal aliens a crime?
Huh? nice try at deflecting though from the point I was making, that your tancredinista gang on FR have burned many bridges about immigration, but what the hey it does wonders for your selfish self-esteem.
"Citizenship belongs to a person wherever they are born," said Katherine Cullion, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, a Latino rights group. "The most basic, fundamental right is the right to citizenship in the country where you were born."To paraphrase SNL; "Katherine you ignorant slut."
If you're not a lesbian go have a baby in Mexico and see what happens. Oh and sneak in too and then demand benefits from Mexico. And while you're there seek out help from all the 'Gringo Rights Groups' that are down there.
#266 - do you have an answer?
Sounds good to me/
Sorry for the delay happy(had other important things to do than wait with bated breath for an answer from a tancredisnista/buchanaite), but do you have an answer for tancredo's obvious tactic of burning bridges, with his on 95% of the most important issues, breathren.
Nope. It's required by the law.
"do you have an answer for tancredo's obvious tactic of burning bridges, with his on 95% of the most important issues, breathren."
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Because Tancredo has never had any connections with George Bush, he has never had any 'bridges' to burn.
That could prove to be an asset in his favor.
Now - back to #266.
Rounding up illegals, shipping them home, and building a giant wall is worth 50 billion because of what it will do to save the rest of our country from becoming 3rd world.
It's about damn time.
This is just patently unconstitutional. We need to amend the Constitution, not find a backdoor way like this. Bills such as these end up making heroes of Supreme Court Judges.
It's everwhere now.
People used to think is was somehow cute and funny when it was restricted to Arizona, Cal, and Texas.
These folks are no longer laughing.
Wait until 2008. There will be another 7,000,000 illegal aliens in our country.
Anyone what to guess what the mood of the country will be by then?
Bill would deny U.S. citizenship to children of ILLEGAL immigrants.
And the problem would be.......?
Especially when the author of the amendment says it excludes the children of foreign diplomats. If you're here legally as a foreign diplomat, you're children don't get citizenship, but if you're here illegally, you're children do get citizenship? How bizarre that would be! [NEOCON ALERT!!]
"14th amendment says if you're born here, you're a citizen"
Good point. Keep the kids, deport the parents, give the kids (at birth) to infertile married (man/woman) couples.
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