“If Arizona State Rep. Russell Pearce has his way, citizenship would no longer be automatic for everyone born on U.S. soil. Pearce is the man behind some of the toughest state immigration laws in recent years. So far he’s pushed through a dozen or so pieces of legislation and he’s prepared to keep fighting.
“I will not back off until we solve the problem of this illegal invasion,” he says, from an office decorated with awards, keepsakes and photos of fellow fighters Ronald Reagan and John Wayne. “Invaders, that’s what they are. Invaders on the American sovereignty and it can’t be tolerated.”
Pearce, a Republican who represents the conservative city of Mesa, sees the law as his weapon.
“I believe in the rule of law … I’ve always believed in the rule of law. We’re a nation of laws,” he says.......”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88125098
Even after the ratification of the 14th Amendment in 1868, simply being "born on U.S. soil" did not automatically grant you U.S. citizenship because the 14th Amendment specifically stated that such birthright citizenship applied to:
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof...."
Since American Indians were "subject to the jurisdiction" of their own Tribal Governments, it was not until the passage of the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act that American Indians were automatically considered U.S. citizens by right of birth on U.S. soil:
BE IT ENACTED by the Senate and house of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all non citizen Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States be, and they are hereby, declared to be citizens of the United States: Provided That the granting of such citizenship shall not in any manner impair or otherwise affect the right of any Indian to tribal or other property. (Approved June 2, 1924)"
Likewise, if a Mexican citizen illegally enters "the territorial limits of the United States", without the knowledge or permission of the U.S. Government and is hiding to avoid U.S. law, a child born under those circumstances cannot be considered, in any reasonable way, to have met the "under the jurisdiction thereof" clause of the 14th Amendment.
Simply ignoring the "under the jurisdiction thereof" clause of the 14th Amendment is nothing less than the practice of Nullification in regards to the U.S. Constitution.