GOP wants to gut the U.S. Constitution that they're supposedly so fond of preserving.

[ubiquitous_a]

Kyl: Illegal Aliens' Kids Shouldn't Be Citizens

Wants Hearing on 14th Amendment Which Grants Citizenship to Children of Illegal Immigrants Born in America

Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., said today that Congress should hold hearings to look into denying citizenship to illegal aliens' children born in the United States, as the fight over immigration widens

Comments

[nothingmuch]

"The 14th Amendment [has been] interpreted to provide that if you are born in the United States, you are a citizen no matter what," Kyl said. "So the question is, if both parents are here illegally, should there be a reward for their illegal behavior?"

So being born here is illegal now? Because the only ones being rewarded right now are the ones who never chose to come here. Newborn Americans aren't being rewarded for "illegal behavior."

The 14th amendment is all that stands between us and a new era of slavery. Without it, babies born here to undocumented immigrants would have no citizenship anywhere and nowhere else to go. They'd have no choice but to live in the US and work under the table. There would be nowhere to deport them, and they would have no future other than working like a slave for wealthy jerks like John Kyl.

[dicranum]

I was just wondering if that meant they'd have no citizenship at all. Agh. That's scary. I'm sure the sickos running sex slave trades would just love this.

[thenakedcat]

Unless the country (or countries) of origin of the child's parents had some sort of legislation specifically addressing this issue, the international standard is based on jus soli (place of birth) trumping jus sanguinis (citizenship of parents) except in very limited circumstances (for example, if the parents were only in the country of birth on a tourist visa and left immediately afterwards). The country or countries of parents' origin would be entirely justified in refusing the child citizenship on the grounds that there should be jus soli US citizenship...leaving a very real threat that the child would be stateless.

[thenakedcat]

A sign that there's a lot more racism at work here than fuckers like John Kyl want to admit: the 13th amendment, which is under attack in favor of the failed "foreign titles=forfeit citizenship" proposal from 150 years ago, and the 14th amendment BOTH relate to ending slavery and pushing back the boundaries of exclusively white male adult landowning citizenship. EXACTLY WHAT KIND OF PAST ARE THEY TRYING TO RECREATE HERE.

[karrixftw]

Oh god, I didn't even think of that. Wow. This brings the argument to a completely different level of insanity.

[nothingmuch]

Leave it to Republicans to propose ideas that would only make things worse.