Birthright Citizenship

            The current economic struggles and fears provoked by challenges to homeland security, whether they are real or imagined, fuel the current debate of birthright citizenship. The right to citizenship if you are born in the United States has been fundamental for some time now, but amidst illegal immigration concerns this right is starting to be challenged.

All children born in the United States should have the opportunity to thrive as citizens of the nation and make their own contributions to society according to the support of the law and American values. The fourteenth amendment clearly states that citizenship applies to “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”. This law clearly applies to all children born in the United States and does not discriminate based on the ethnic group of status of the parents.

It is not just the law that makes the argument clear for birthright citizenship, but also the American values that the nations tries to uphold. According to Washington Post writer Alexandria Ron Tollefson, “Being an American is not about having American ancestry but about embracing the freedoms and equality guaranteed by our constitution. Anyone willing to endure life-threatening hardships to enter our nation is likely to embody these values and pass them on to their American children.” A person’s origins should not be a determinant of whether or not they can be a good citizen. When it comes to birthright citizenship it is clear that we not only have a legal, but a moral obligation to uphold the practice of granting citizenship to children born on American soil.

The equality of all people is essential to understanding why birth rights are so important. Discrimination has no place in United States legal policy and the fight against birthright citizenship is a discriminatory act against children who cannot speak for themselves. To deny the right of citizenship to a child because their parents illegally immigrated to the United States is against the morality that the nation has chosen to place at high esteem.

There are many factors that lead to immigration such as escaping form war, poverty, or abuse that should not be ignored in how we see immigration. There are some basic human rights that we owe each other, not only as members of our national communities, but also to the universal community of mankind. Birthright citizenship is essential to who the United States is as a nation and to how citizenship is defined in the country.