{"id":1510,"date":"2010-02-28T21:29:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-28T21:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jcpa.wpengine.com\/?p=1510"},"modified":"2025-04-11T15:46:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T15:46:13","slug":"birthright-citizenship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jewishpublicaffairs.org\/press-release\/birthright-citizenship\/","title":{"rendered":"Birthright Citizenship"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution affirmed the concept of birthright citizenship, i.e.<\/em>, determining a person\u2019s citizenship by\u00a0place of birth.\u00a0 Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment provides \u201cAll 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.\u201d[1]<\/a>\u00a0 This provision echoes the founding precepts of our Declaration of Independence that, endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights, \u201call men are created equal\u201d; it embodies the elegant thoughts of Abraham Lincoln in his July 4, 1858 speech and later the Gettysburg address,\u00a0 [2]<\/a><\/sup> and it inspired the words on our Statute of Liberty as it welcomes new immigrants to this day.[3]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 This Constitutional provision insures \u201cthat all native-born children, whether members of an unpopular minority or descendants of privileged ancestors . . . have the inalienable right to citizenship and all its privileges and immunities.\u201d[4]<\/a> It reflects the American Dream that only hard work and ability, not ancestry or class, should determine one\u2019s achievement in our nation. \u00a0As Jews we, or our immigrant forebears, or both have benefited greatly from this uniquely America ethos.<\/p>\n

In a rash of anti-immigration political demagoguery, numerous politicians contend that many Hispanic immigrants are illegally coming to our shores to \u201cdrop Anchor babies\u201d so that their child and, through it, the entire family may become legal citizens. Apart from a few unverified anecdotes, there is no data showing that undocumented immigrants are coming to the United States in any significant numbers for this reason, rather than for American economic opportunities or to avoid persecution in their countries of origin.[5]<\/a> Bills have been introduced in Congress, and several of the states are considering legislation defining state citizenship with additional requirements. Many of these proposals and the political arguments supporting them willfully ignore the historical meaning and clear judicial precedents interpreting Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment. Supporters of these proposals maintain, erroneously, that undocumented immigrants are not \u201csubject to the jurisdiction of the United States\u201d since they are citizens of and owe allegiance to, their countries of origin and that this language has been \u201cmisinterpreted\u201d.[6]<\/a>\u00a0 There is also a movement to encourage two-thirds of the state legislatures to pass resolutions calling for the first constitutional convention ever under Article V, of the U. S. Constitution to amend the Constitution.\u00a0 Since there are no rules or procedures governing such a convention, it is possible that it could attempt to amend any provision of the Constitution it chooses, not just the birthright provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment.<\/p>\n

Studies show that repeal of the birthright citizenship provisions would actually increase the number of undocumented aliens in the United States and create an unprecedented permanent, self-perpetuating class of unauthorized immigrants with hereditary disadvantages.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/sup><\/p>\n

In addition, by making citizenship depend even in part on ancestry, rather than objectively on place of birth, all citizens and their descendents would lose the ability to prove their citizenship by their birth certificate alone. They would need additional documentation of the United States citizenship of one or more (depending on the proposed new requirement) of their ancestors, and perhaps multiple generations of ancestors. In time proof of their citizenship would prove to be an unfair, expensive administrative nightmare for millions of Americans, including many of non\u2011Hispanic ancestry.<\/p>\n

The JCPA believes that:<\/p>\n