Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida is introducing legislation that questions the practice of birthright citizenship in the United States.
As expected, many liberal Democrats aren’t very happy about this plan, as it puts a wrench in their plan to import new Democrat voters.
As outlined in both the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the Immigration and Nationality Act, all persons born or naturalized in the US are granted automatic citizenship if they are subject to its jurisdiction.
However, Gaetz’s bill seeks to challenge this by amending the Immigration and Nationality Act to stipulate that a person must be born to a parent who is a national of the United States, refugee, alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, or an alien performing active service in the armed forces in order for them to receive American citizenship automatically at birth.
“Birthright citizenship has been grossly and blatantly misapplied for decades, recently becoming a loophole for illegal aliens to fraudulently abuse our immigration system. My legislation recognizes that American citizenship is a privilege –– not an automatic right to be co-opted by illegal aliens,” Gaetz said, according to a press release.
The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states that “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.”
The Immigration and Nationality Act likewise stipulates that “a person born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” qualifies as an American citizen.
Gaetz’s measure would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act by stipulating that “the term ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof’ means, with respect to a person born in the United States, that the person was born to a parent who is, at the time of the person’s birth,” any of the following: “a national of the United States,” “a refugee,” “an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence,” or “an alien performing active service in the armed forces.”
This measure has been backed by two major GOP presidential primary frontrunners: former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
On his website, DeSantis states that dangling “the prize of citizenship” to illegal immigrants’ future offspring is a major driver of illegal migration and inconsistent with what was intended with the 14th Amendment.
He also suggests that Congress should address this policy failure as soon as possible. In addition, Trump has stated his intention to sign an executive order informing federal agencies that children born from illegal aliens will not receive automatic US citizenship under any circumstances.
Ultimately, Representative Matt Gaetz’s proposed bill challenges traditional interpretations of birthright citizenship as it pertains to those born on US soil, an issue that has been met with support from many figures within the Republican party.
7 Responses
I don;t get it…why would Democrats care about Birthright?? They want to abort all babies!
Not quite. Just minority babies and those of others they deem a burden on society as Margaret Sanger advocated. 😞
Does this mean that we can finally get rid of Obama? Maybe Kenya will take him? Ya Right!
While I agree that we should end automatic birthright citizenship for anchor babies, I don’t see how Gaetz’s bill would be constitutional as no law can supersede the Constitution. That includes the 14th Amendment and the SCOTUS interpretation of it.
What we need is an amendment that definitively defines what constitutes Natural Born Citizenship and one that ends anchor baby citizenship. However, I don’t see Congress ever proposing such an amendment, so perhaps the only way to force the issue is through an Article V Convention.
There is no anchor baby citizenship any where in the Constitution or the Immigration and Naturalization Act. Neither the federal government nor any state government has jurisdiction over a foreign national in this country illegally, so they cannot have jurisdiction over their children illegally born here.
Bravo Matt Hooray
This is the first step in addressing our immigration problem. Illegals have numerous children born at taxpayer expense. Free education, welfare, Wic , rent and electric subsidies follow draining our system.
Next they should stop chain migration. We don’t know who the illegals are let alone their supposed relatives they bring in!