Citizenship in America is acquired in one of these ways: 1) born in America, 2) born outside America but taken appropriate tests to become a naturalized citizen, 3) or born outside America but then married an American citizen. In this blog post, I want to focus on number 1, which is called birthright citizenship.
Birthright citizenship has not always been the law of the land. It was established by the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which was ratified by Congress in 1868. The first section of the 14th Amendment reads:
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.Recently, birthright citizenship has been questioned. For instance, Congressional Republican Steve King has called for an end to birthright citizenship because of illegal immigration. King is concerned about illegal immigration. In particular, King is concerned about illegal immigrants secretly coming across the US-Mexico border and having a child -- the child, because they were born in America, are now American citizens. King wants to do away with birthright citizenship because the children born in America make it easier for the parents who are illegal aliens to stay in the US.
What do you think?
Should citizenship be determined by birth? Or should being born in America count for nothing? Should we determine citizenship by another standard? -- for example, citizenship could be purchased, or citizenship could be acquired by serving in the military, citizenship could be acquired by passing a test, citizenship could be acquired by doing public service, or citizenship could be acquired by measuring your net contribution to the society. These are just a few examples of the different ways that citizenship can be gained.
