No, no, no. The citizen is the child, you see.
No kidding, Sherlock. The law is "applicable upon" the child. It "applies to" the parent.
What can't you grasp about that?!
That's like saying a child who isn't of an age to drive is responsible for their parent's speeding simply because they're in the car. The law applies to the driver, not the passenger.
The law...governs when the children of aliens can be citizens.
No, the law states when they become citizens, that being at birth.
Therefore, it governs citizens: the citizens who qualify according to it to be citizens from birth.
They can't be citizens until they're born you dolt! It doesn't take effect until after they're born, meaning before they're citizens. Thus, the law is applicable upon the children of aliens and applies to the alien parent/parents, one of which may not be a citizen at all.
“I haven’t argued anywhere that it doesn’t establish the children’s status. You going back to it time after time isn’t going to change what I didn’t say into something I did say.”
I haven’t changed what you said. We both agree that you agree it establishes their status. I was using that to move on the nexct point, which is that obviously if it establishes their status it applies to them. It’s their status, after all.
“What can’t you grasp about that?!”
Um, everything?
“That’s like saying a child who isn’t of an age to drive is responsible for their parent’s speeding simply because they’re in the car”
no it isn’t. Your example has as much bearing on the argument as me saying “That’s like saying apples baseball submarine Herny Kissinger toilet seat babies.”
“The law applies to the driver, not the passenger.”
Yes, that’s because the law is about the driver. A law controlling citizenship status from birth, contrariwise, is more about the child than the parent, given that they are the ones with the status. Are you trying to say citizenship from birth is like being in a speeding car as a passenger? Like, it’s an objective fact that you were speeding, though anti-speeding laws don’t apply to you. Just like how the law applies only to the parents, somehow, even though the children are the ones who aqcuire the status.
“No, the law states when they become citizens, that being at birth.”
Distinction without a difference.
“They can’t be citizens until they’re born you dolt!”
So what? How does that mean the law doesn’t apply to them when they are born?
“It doesn’t take effect until after they’re born”
You just said they’re not citizens until they’re born. Being born citizens, as they are, their citizenship comes simultaneously with their birth. They’re born, and—bam!—they’re citizens. There is no lag.
You do agree that children born to an alien parent and qualifying according to the conditions laid out in the law are born citizens, don’t you? Then how can you possibly say it isn’t until after they’re born? Do you know what it means to be born a citizen? Just that: to be born a citizen.
“meaning before they’re citizens”
That makes absolutely no sense. Born citizens are not ever anything but citizens once they are born. Not a few seconds after they’re born, not a week after they’re born. As soon as they’re born. There is no lacuna of indeterminacy.
“Thus, the law is applicable upon the children of aliens and applies to”
Because of the lacuna theory? Oh, well, I knew there must have been a reason, however unreasonable.