Ending Birthright Citizenship for Illegal Immigrants: Is This Awesome?

[jonsonite]

Recognizing that without me, it can only ever be Aweso, I want to hear what all you fine people have to say about this:

A parent from a poor country, writes professor Lino Graglia of the University of Texas law school, "can hardly do more for a child than make him or her an American citizen, entitled to all the advantages of the American welfare

Comments

[ursako]

I'm sure you know my outlook on immigration, so this probably won't surprise you, but: I think it's a bad idea. There's something very disturbing to me about the idea of attempting this kind of reinterpretation, simply because the text of the 14th Amendment itself absolutely does not distinguish based on parentage. "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." George Will wouldn't be caught dead arguing that illegal immigrants shouldn't be subject to the civil and criminal jurisdiction of the U.S. (in its federal or several capacity), so he can argue about the CRA of 1866 all he wants, but I think you'd have to amend the Constitution to get the interpretation he wants.

Of course, in a more commonsensical way, I agree with your concerns about a perpetual underclass. 12 million people within our borders that we won't naturalize and we won't get rid of leads to a number of social problems.

[jonsonite]

If the Constitutional amendment came up on the ballot, do you think it'd be a good idea?

[ursako]

Honestly, no; again, because I think it would invite the creation of an exploitable (and volatile) underclass, which seems inherently undesirable to me. Certain European countries and Japan take this approach, and they all have substantial criminal undergrounds run by those marginalized populations.
It also seems really un-American to me to say that someone who is born here and grows up here wouldn't be a citizen, but I'll admit that I haven't really thought that aspect through much.

[jonsonite]

Both of those points are good. My main concern with birthright citizenship is that it creates such a huge incentive for illegal immigration. I think the current situation is untenable, and I don't want to just open our borders to as many people as want to come in.

I think I want a combination of tightening border security, creating a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants already here, and allowing in more skilled immigrants from other countries.

What if we replaced birthright citizenship with birthright greencards? They could work at becoming citizens and could come out of the shadows, but they'd have to take the same citizenship steps and tests as legal immigrants. Best of both worlds? Least bad compromise?

[ursako]

Hmmmm.

I agree with creating a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. (Keep in mind that these are people who come to the US illegally because, barring an asylum claim, they have NO OTHER METHOD of permanent legal immigration.) I'm not sure that eliminating birthright citizenship eliminates those incentives, though; there are a lot of undocumented immigrants who came here to earn money, not to have their kids grow up in America. As long as jobs are available for those immigrants, they'll come regardless.

Admitting more skilled immigrants isn't always necessary; demand for H-1B workers, for example, rises and falls with the economy, so I don't know that raising the ceiling is necessary so much as tethering it to some benchmark of economic activity. I think my answer would be to create some sort of temporary unskilled worker program with a path to citizenship, and make the green card caps more proportionate to the incoming populations from each country.

... Or something.