THE 14TH AMENDMENT: IS CITIZENSHIP A BIRTH RIGHT?

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. 

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

There it is in its whole context, just for your information. It’s Section 1 that is being used to allow illegal aliens to crawl over the border and have a baby, thereby having a U.S. citizen in the family and, presumably, gaining the right to live here forever at our expense. There are some people out there who latch onto the words “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” as a means of rejecting citizenship for those babies.

I don’t get it. If they are here, they are subject to our jurisdiction. To me, the argument is fallacious.

So, do we go ahead and modify or repeal this section of the 14th Amendment?

I don’t know why we simply refuse… refuse… to uphold the laws of the United States as they exist. Number one, if you cross the border illegally, you get sent home. Period. Number two, if you cross the border illegally and have a child here, you get sent home. Period. Having a child here gives you no rights. Where does it say you have rights if you have a child here? You go home, back to Mexico, and you either take your U.S. citizen child with you, or you leave him or her here. If you leave them here, you give up your parental rights.

Now, you can call me whatever you want. I’m in no way denying anyone the right to move here and live here legally. But, if you cross the border illegally, you have no rights. You’re definitely not a citizen and you are not here on a visa or passport, so you have no rights.

That’s the law, that’s the way it was intended to be, and that’s the way it should be. If they don’t like it, they shouldn’t cross the damned border illegally. Furthermore, anyone who aids and abets should be charged with a crime. If you aid a bank robber, you go to jail. If you aid an illegal, you go to jail.

So, just what is so damned difficult about that?