Ethics: Should U.S. Citizenship Be A Geographical Birthright?

Almost every ordinary person believes that anyone born on U.S. soil is a citizen, ever since the 14^th Amendment. This is actually so well-known that pregnant women sometimes come here with the intention of delivering on U.S. soil, giving their children U.S. citizenship and (if they stay), creating what are called “anchor babies.” In reality, however, there have been some notable exceptions to this doctrine of birthright citizenship, particularly children of foreign dignitaries and (prior to the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924) native Americans. Also, one person whose parents were here legally had to go all the way to the Supreme Court to prove he was a citizen precisely because his status was not so obvious. This is because of one little phrase in the 14^th Amendment about birthright citizenship flowing to persons “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States. Recent proposals by Arizona legislators would seek to force a clarification of the federal position on this issue by denying Arizona citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants. Would it be ethical to deny citizenship to the childen of people illegally in the United States?

Links:

Birthright Citizenship in the U.S. (Wikipedia)

U.S. Citizenship (Wikipedia)

Fourteenth Amendment (Wikipedia)

Citizenship Clause (Wikipedia)

Mexican nationality law (Wikipedia)

Arizona attacks birthright citizenship (New American)

HB 2561

HB 2562

The terrible mistake of revoking BRC (NY Daily news)

A heavy price to ending BRC (LA Times)

AZ Leg targets BRC (WSJ)

BRC fight begins in AZ (AZR)

Ending BRC wouldn’t stop illegals (Immigration Policy)