Obama Citizenship

Republican Offers Questionable Bill on Citizenship, Repealing Portion of 14 Amendment

By Phil

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA) has introduced HR 126 (again, no co-sponsors) that would, in effect, begin limiting exactly who would become US citizens (read: an attempt to deal with immigration):

To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to limit citizenship at birth, merely by virtue of birth in the United States, to persons with citizen or legal resident mothers. (Introduced in House)

Yes, I know — I had to do about 3 double-takes to really get this one in my head. What’s more:

SECTION 1. LIMITING CITIZENSHIP AT BIRTH, MERELY BY VIRTUE OF BIRTH IN THE UNITED STATES, TO PERSONS WITH LEGAL RESIDENT MOTHERS.

(a) In General- Section 301(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1401(a)) is amended by inserting before the semicolon the following: `, of a mother who is a citizen or legal resident of the United States’.

(b) Effective Date- The amendment made by subsection (a) shall apply to persons born after the date of ratification of an article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States that repeals the first sentence of section 1 of the fourteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States. [emphasis mine]

Here’s the appropriate 14th Amendment verbiage:

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. [emphasis mine]

It is the emboldened part that would have to be removed.

How would this affect immigrants? Interestingly, a cursory Google News search turned up the following from a Korean newspaper site:

Limiting Birthright Citizenship in U.S. Proposed

For years, many expecting Korean mothers have flown over to the U.S. so their children can have American citizenship, but that airplane ticket may be of no use in the future.

The U.S. currently adopts a territorial principle that provides citizenship to anyone born in the country, regardless of the parents’ nationalities.

But a Republican congressman, Elton Gallegly, has introduced a bill that would make it more difficult to obtain citizenship merely by being born on American soil.

There have been many attempts to abolish the principle but none have succeeded.

Arirang News

Apparently, this is one Republican who appears to support modifying the Constitution over coming up with reasonable, fundamental reform of federal laws enforcing America’s borders.

-Phil

Full post as published by The Right Side of Life on January 18, 2009 (boomark / email).