Here's the relevant section of the 14th amendment:

"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."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

For the first time on this website I have had to thumbs down a "Republican" bill. The 14th Amendment is clear on this: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the States wherein they reside."

14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Ratified: July 9, 1868

This bill I feel will violate the constitution of the United States. The Constitution did not discriminate on a child or other person due to their parents citizenship status.

If a child of illegal parents is born here in the United States, than that child is a legal citizen, however what this bill should be doing is eliminating the automatic citizenship status for the parents; as they are not legal citizens, but are parents of a legal resident.

I believe this bill violated the Constitution, and I hereby stand against it.

I fully support this bill. It will help stop pregnant women from entering illegally for the purpose of trying to have their baby in the US.

"and subject to the jurisdiction thereof" was added to overcome court decisions such as The Dred Scott Decision and other language in laws denying citizenship to freed slaves born in the US. But children born to individuals in the US who are foreign diplomats or have visitors visas are not citizens because they are not subject to the laws of the US.
The current interpretation goes back to s court case in the 1890's whereby a person born in the US to Chinese workers who were not citizens but remained loyal to the Chinese Emperor was refused reentry into the US after his parents returned to China.
But ask illegals who they are loyal to, The US or their home country. Most would say their home country. Therefore, are they really subject to the jurisdiction. Ask their children. They are loyal to the country of their heritage.
This bill needs to be passed. It would stop illegal immigration overnight.

Oh, is that right? Well, let me ask you this then. Two illegals heading for the US border, mother pregnant and about to drop, both KNOWING they don't have documentation to be here at all, but trying to cross the border Illegally, they get 5 miles from the US Border when the mother delivers her child, but they proceed on and stop at the first town they come to on American soil and tell the people there the child was born on US soil. Should any of them be given citizenship and full rights? Not just no, but HELL NO! If they aren't citizens, then their child aint either! They are all just here visiting!!!!!!!!!! Like any German, or European tourist just over here on vacation, or as they say it, on Holiday!

You cannot amend a Constitutional amendment with a statute. You would need to use the process of Constitutional Amendment found at http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/constitution/ to amend or repeal the 14th Amendment. That process states that an amendment can only be "proposed either by the Congress with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the State legislatures." Once it is proposed, the amendment would then have to be ratified by three-fourths of the States (38 of 50 States).

I'm glad for this process, because this bill would put us in the same camp as Kuwait where there have been multiple generations born in that country w/o gaining citizenship. Many Americans condemned that back in 1990 and it's not the right thing to do now.

Again do you people choose to be ignorent or are you just born that way???? Stop foccusing on the parents mistake for just a second and think of the children!! whats to become of them if this bill passes when they grow up?. Suffer the hardships the way there parents did for coming to the us illegaly. When they were acctually born on american soil and have absolutly no say in there parents decision to come here illegally? Of what country would they be citizens of? This bill makes me sick and so does Rep Deal for being ignorent and well racist. Taking the birth rights is'nt going to make anything better i simply just don't understand why we should blame the children and deny them the rights they should be intitled to.

Yes I could look them in the eye and tell them that. Most likely through an interpretor.

Could you tell american kids who belong here the country is going to hell because we are letting people leach off of it.

should illegals even be coming here. What would you rather have armed guards shooting them before they get here or this law passed. They are criminal and giving the kid citizenship ends up rewarding the parent for commiting a crime as the kid is eligible for welfare and all that

"I doubt very seriously that our framers anticipated that people from other countries...were going to sneak into the US so there unborn children would be citizens upon birth and thus giving them...access to our Social Security, health care, etc."

How about this:

"I doubt very seriously that our framers anticipated that people from other countries...were going to sneak into the US so there unborn children would be citizens upon birth and thus giving them...access to our land, our resources, our sources of food, etc."

We were founded by "undocumented immigrants" (or "illegals") - who stole from others and murdered them to get what they wanted. Yet you don't think they would mean that people should become citizens in the very manner they became citizens? Interesting.

This bill does not amend the Constitution, it violates the Immigration and Nationality Act (see the title of the bill).

Thank God another patriotic american. I agree the 14th amendment was written to protect newly freed slaves it was not meant to be exploited to leach off our country because they are from a hole in the wall. The only way to keep them out is to make is as uncomfortable as possible here. Then there is no reason to come. The illegals act like we owe it to them and they thumb their noses at us. That is in addition to not attempting to learn our language.

Liberals just want to keep birthright citizenship because they dont want the latino vote to go agaisnt them and they figure the voters will vote liberal.

I think anyone who supports illegal immigration ( including anchor babies) is a traitor to this country.

My opinion is that programs that are paid for by citizens and taxpayers are to be used for the benefit of citizens and taxpayers.

Is there a way to allow for the citizenship of the child without rewarding the illegal manner in which they received it? Wouldn't limiting services to legal residents greatly reduce the incentive to enter the country illegally?

look it up it is all over the palce. Look at anchors away on youtube. It s a cbs report that even talks about roaches ( illegals) coming into the hospital soaking wet because they swam across the river

They didn't come here legally because the system in place prevents them from doing so, check immigration laws on this. My great grandparents became legal residents by arriving on a boat and not being sick. Today, the process takes many, meany years, 13 if you're a Mexican, for instance. That's why. Second, the illegal immigrants are not taking jobs from U.S. citizens, they are filling jobs that need doing that no one here would do for a low wage. So, they fill an economic void WE created for them. If U.S. employers, particularly in the service industries, were willing to pay fair wages, the illegal immigrants would not come here b/c there would not be anything for them here. It's like ants in your kitchen: if you leave out the crumbs, the ants will come for them. The ants didn't cause the problem, you did by leaving out something they valued. If you want to fix the problem, don't start with the symptom, start with the root cause: employers and fair wages.

Just like many of the provisions of the "Original Constitution", the Fourteenth Amendment has been perverted from its original intent. The words state that the "States" shall not make laws... It states nothing about the limits of the Federal government. We already limit which foreigners giving birth on US soil automatically gain US Citizenship. Why would we not place the same limits of Criminal Invading Aliens? While we are at it, we need a measure that requires verification of citizenship for the granting of ALL benefits, and denies those benefits to ANYONE here illegally. These are the same domestic protections used by other countries to protect their national sovereignty.
The pundits cry that America is better than that. No we are not. We have the same rates of unemployment, a sky-rocketing national debt, and a tendency towards social programs that will bankrupt the nation eventually (Look at California!). It is time for Americans to protect America.

Immigrants today do not have the luxury of coming into a modern day Ellis Island, like our grandparents and great-grandparents did: if they could get here and weren't ill, they entered legally. Today, that process can take 13 years for a Mexican, to cite one example. Don't compare apples to oranges. If you want to be angry at someone for the number of illegal/undocumented workers, look at the companies that refuse to pay legal workers a fair, decent and livable wage. Or the companies that avoid the trouble altogether and take their factories overseas so they can pay cheap labor, avoid taxes, a skirt labor and environmental laws. These are the true illegals, not those that come in to fill an economic gap that WE have created.

They are, therefore, a sympton of a broken link in our economic system, not the problem that many here make them out to be. It is either,a) employers who refuse to pay a fair, decent and livable wage &benefits) or, b) U.S. workers who, today, so look down upon the physical labor that initially made our country so great that they refuse to do these jobs without greater pay/protections.

First of all, I really don't think this Bill, approved or not, would have any teeth in it for enactment, because a constitutional amendment contradicts it. The 14th amendment is pretty straightforward, ANY PERSON born here is a citizen. If you want to change that, you need another amendment. Next, to those that would make the sweeping argument that illegals come here to take benefits and jobs that do not belong to them, I urge you to do research and find out who these people are. The majority come here to work and work hard they do. The majority of them do pay into our tax, welfare and retirement system without a hope of being able to take out. They are here to fill a gap in our economy that U.S. citizens will not fill for the pay the undocumented will accept.

I'd be interested in seeing your sources - you seem to be implying that all undocumented immigrants come over here to have babies. Please point me to the research that has shown that.

Way to Fast,

The bill does not violate the Constitution, it is amending an amendment. (the 14th amendment). Thats what amendments are for, to amend (adjust, change, update, etc) the laws that become outdated. Read history. This amendment was put into place shortly after the civil war in order to protect newly freed slaves, not to allow illegal immigrants to come here to have their children so they become automatic citizens. (If we wanted open borders there would be no need for immigration laws right?) These illegal immigrants have chosen to use out laws against us to their benefit. Why would you want to allow that to continue?

I'd be interested in seeing your source for this claim.

Well said, and I couldn't agree more.

Services to legal residents are limited already. People don't come here for the services because they generally don't get any.

Unfortunately, I have to agree that you're right, that it goes against the 14th amendment. The parents aren't automatically given legal residency, just are allowed to chain migrate (with other members of the extended family) and become legal residents when the child turns 18. If the parents aren't legal citizens, should we take the children away and put them in foster care? Should we continue to allow the illegal parents to remain, knowing that they turn to welfare, medicaid, and hospital emergency rooms to have benefits? It's not an easy problem, and while I wouldn't mind the *children* staying, the law-breaking parents have got to go.

You have not read the ENTIRE Amendment. " and SUBJECT to the jurisdiction thereof" is what you are missing. A foreigner is NOT A SUBJECT of the US, and there fore all kids a foreigners! The CURRENT law is unconstituional!

The only way for this method to be legal is for the constitution's citizenship clause of Amendment 14, Section 1, to be amended. A bill cannot (at least should not...) change the basic rules of the constitution.

Thumbs Down. If people are using loopholes (aka anchor babies), then modify the Constitution.

I am interested to know if any other country in the world grants automatic citizenship upon birth? I will have to research that. At any rate, we have to do something and this looks like a step forward for a change. I also wonder the nationality of those who are so strongly opposed? I somehow do not feel that the threat to our constitution is the driving force behind the objections - more than likely more personal than that. America belongs first and foremost to it's citizens who have had family members fight and die for generations for their country. Now, that creates a loyalty that simply living here and taking advantage of the system will never produce.

I'm sorry but I disagree about violating the 14th amendment. I doubt very seriously that our framers anticipated that people from other countries (like Mexico, which was totally different back then where territory is concerned) were going to sneak into the US so there unborn children would be citizens upon birth and thus giving them (the illegal parents) access to our Social Security, health care, etc. I think this bill clarifies what the framers intended.

People who come to the US illegally for the purpose of giving there children citizenship in the US are nothing short of sneak thieves. There are NO circumstances (child or not) that should be an exception to this rule. Who knows, maybe we could actually cut down on some of the illegal crossings and, dare I say, deaths in the deserts from sneaking in to the US.

America's population would be stable were it not for issues with our borders: both legal and illegal immigration. Anything over 100,000 per year of total immigration creates a net increase in our population. If we continue allowing so many immigrants for enough years, we'll wind up crowded like China. We need to control our borders -- if we did that, then this bill isn't an issue cause so few would be coming in illegally.