Discussion for article #239546
Take away their mirrors, and Republicans don’t see anybody they like.
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The issue of birthright citizenship is one that, unfortunately, has nothing to do with birthright citizenship. Rather, it is all about keeping “undesirables” out of the country. While I actually do agree that birthright citizenship is rocky in terms of its desirability, and given that it is something of a rarity in the world, I don’t believe we would be having this conversation if the people who had this happen the most were White Canadians or White Europeans.
Thing is, the issue of Birthright Citizenship was settled back in 1608. Believe it or not, the whole idea rests in British Common Law dating to before the US came into being. It has been settled many times since then.
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Would you like to elaborate on that?
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“I know the 14th Amendment has been brought up recently, about anchor babies—and it doesn’t make any sense to me that people could come in here, have a baby and that baby becomes an American citizen,” Carson said at a rally in Phoenix Tuesday,
The last person who should say anything negative about this subject, has just proven that US History (warts and all) needs to reintroduced back into the schools.
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“…some supporters of changing the policy, like Rep. Steve King (R-IA), say it would only require a federal statute.”
And we all know that Steve King is a brilliant Constitutional scholar.
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How about this, doctor: Without birthright citizenship, your forebears, and you, would not be citizens of the United States? Still think it doesn’t make sense?
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weird that…its almost vampiric.
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Tell ya what man, Trump lite ain’t gonna cut it.
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Carson is just jumping on the GOP bandwagon here. Never mind the 14th Amendment or the SCOTUS US v Wong Kim Ark decision, it’s all about smacking People Not Like Us.
But keep it up. Shrink that GOP tent.
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Well, we should deport him then, it’d only be fair.
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It’s really jaw-dropping, isn’t it? Of all the clown car candidates, even this one doesn’t understand the context of the 14th Amendment, doesn’t understand why birthright citizenship was a necessary adjunct to the end of slavery. Wow. Holy crap.
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I think it will take more than a ‘federal statute’.
Amendment XIV, 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.
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There are some 28 countries with birthright citizenship, but the number is constantly diminishing. This leaves the US and Canada as the only two big advanced economies with the principle. Other English-speaking countries such as New Zealand and Australia have eliminated the right, adopting a regularized immigration process. The problem in the US, of course, is not “anchor” babies, but the lack of a functional path to citizenship. Anybody who has been through the green card process understands this. It is doable, but it costs a lot of money and it is not clear at the end of the day whether it produces integration. I would tend to agree with Carson’s statement, except that the craziness of having parallel formal and informal migration systems is even crazier. At least under the current rule, children are spared the administrative absurdities and can start life and education on a similar footing as their peers. Ultimately, the US needs to move to a regularized immigration system like other advanced economies.
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It’s particularly galling that this idiot doesn’t get that the 14th Amendment was passed in 1868 to guarantee equality to recently freed black slaves. Of course, Carson is kind of a fake black guy (like Justice Thomas on the Supreme Court) who votes against everything that he himself took advantage of to raise his status as a successful American. The societies which don’t have birthright citizenship have problems with caste systems, where citizens born in the country and people who immigrate and become citizens are treated differently under the law. I don’t think, as a supposed egalitarian society, that we want to move in that direction.
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It’s easy, Ben. BC, inscribed in the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, prevented your ancestors from being deported to Liberia in 1865.
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‘Doesn’t Make Any Sense To Me’ … well, that and many other things. Idiot savant.
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I get the reference to Carson being African American, but without Birthright Citizenship, a good chunk of the country would not be citizens.
And how the hell did Bobby Jindal jump on this one? His ass wouldn’t be a citizen at all!
Keep talking Republicans, because they will next get to rolling back the 17th Amendment, taking away voting rights for people who do not own land, requiring tests to vote…
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I kinda liked Robert Heinlein’s take on citizenship in Starship Troopers. If you want to be a citizen, enlist in the military. The drawback would be that people like Trump etc. would find a way to do it without putting themselves in harm’s way.
Well, yes. And, as others have pointed out in this thread, it’s a historical smacking of People Like Him as well.