[quote=briansd1][quote=CA renter]
1. Though it’s consitutional, I think people who are born here should not become citizens unless one or both of their parents are citizens. It was one thing to do this when we were trying to build a country, but we don’t need the same type of population growth now.[/quote]
*Gasp*. It’s not just constitutional, CA renter, it’s an inalienable right. BTW, the 14th Amendment was not about population growth.
You make it sound like citizenship is an optional grace and favour that can be bestowed upon someone.
As you said before, you’re not a not Brian’s kind of “liberal”. You sound like just a nativist, municipal employee union defender. Perhaps a slow-growth type who wants to protect her little turf by erecting barriers against others. Just a government employee version of the Tea Party.[/quote]
No, it wasn’t originally intended to be about population growth, but it did affect how children of immigrants were accorded citizenship. There was less push-back in this regard because the government wanted population growth at the time.
We no longer need that level of population growth, and we no longer have slaves. So why do we still need the that provision of the 14th Amendment? Another way to think about it is if the 14th Amendment was ratified only to grant citizenship to all slave children who were born here, why does it also apply to “anchor babies” from other countries?
And yes, I absolutely believe that American citizenship is a privilege to be thoughtfully granted to those who earn it. It is not a right that belongs to any and every immigrant (or their child) who wants it.
