Understanding the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2007

Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga. currently has a bill in Congress titled The Birthright Citizenship Act of 2007 which has been the subject of some controversy lately. For starters the usual propaganda is being spewed by those who feel we should be a nation without borders, they argue that this bill is somehow discriminatory against Hispanics, even going so far as to say this bill is un-American. The bill, which currently has 89 co-sponsors is neither discriminatory nor un-American of course, it simply intends to close a loophole in our current immigration system which allows for "anchor babies".

The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution states "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 clause has been widely misunderstood as to mean that any child born in this Country, regardless of the status of the parent, was a United States citizen. This is hardly the case, and the Supreme Court has already ruled on this matter in ELK v. WILKINS, 112 U.S. 94 (1884):

The main object of the opening sentence of the fourteenth amendment was to settle the question, upon which there had been a difference of opinion throughout the country and in this court, as to the citizenship of free negroes, (Scott v. Sandford, 19 How. 393;) and to put it beyond doubt that all persons, white or black, and whether formerly slaves or not, born or naturalized in the United States, and owing no allegiance to any alien power, should be citizens of the United States and of the state in which they reside.