Political musing

[emrlddragon]

If, and that is a big if, the republican succeed in abolishing the 14th Amendment, what does that mean for my future children?

Comments

[darkfrog24]

Who the hell wants to abolish the equal protection under law amendment?!

It's the anti-illegal-immigrant crowd, isn't it? They don't want the children of illegals who are born here to be citizens.

[emrlddragon]

Pretty much, yeah.

[drjmaxwell]

They're not trying to abolish the 14th amendment. They're trying to patch up "and its jurisdictions thereof" or something (I shamefully admit I don't have the language memorized). The idea isn't to get rid of the Equal Protection part of it, but jus solis citizenship.

Edit 1: Which would mean nothing, unless you have foreign citizenship and have a child on U.S. soil with a father of foreign citizenship.

Edit 2: And honestly, I think I'm in favor of that. I'm not exactly a Minuteman, since I want a guest worker program and a path to citizenship, but the incentives (make it onto American soil before going into labor and you have your foot in the door) seem screwed up as is. Birth by soil made a lot more sense when we were still adding new territories.

[emrlddragon]

Yet, we are all the descendants of immigrants, illegal and otherwise.

Of course the problem runs both ways, not every immigrant wants to be a citizen. Some of them just want to come here and work so they can feed their starving children back home. And, honestly, we need them, more desperately then most people realize. For example, these people pick our food at far below minimum wage. If we lose them, food prices go up, and the price of everything else along with it.

[drjmaxwell]

All of that is true.

I can't tell if you're disagreeing with me or not. It seems disagreeable, but I can't find the counterargument in there.

[emrlddragon]

I suppose that is the point. There is no way to argument to be made because it is a simple truth.

I don't disagree with you, pe sa. I guest worker program, especially one that is easier to get into, would be good. But I think it is silly start by assuming everyone wants to be a citizen.

Plus, repealing one of the most basic civil rights, seems like a terribly slipper slope to me.

[inusdemoness]

This entire debate has me bouncing back and forth like a tennis ball. I think it's extremely unfair to the people in other countries who go through all the red tape, wait years, and fill out every scrape of paper that gets pushed at them just so they become citizens, for someone else to simply pussyfoot over the border illegally. They should be sent back and made to start the process the right way by going through all the proper channels.

But then again...

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

If we don't mean that then someone needs to go up to the Statue of Liberty and scratch it off. Until then, let them stay if they're here already.

[drjmaxwell]

Imagine what shipping back millions of people (who would no longer have jobs) would do to Mexico. If you were able to round them all up and ship them back, their unemployment rate would go to 20%.

I think we should let them stay, but make them pay a fine and become guest workers.

[inusdemoness]

I wasn't talking about "rounding them all up". Thank you for turning my opinion into a cattle drive. We already deport illegal aliens and I just think that starting the process of citizenship after we send them back wouldn't be a bad idea. Go back and do it the right way.