BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP: AUTOMATIC CITIZENSHIP BY LOCATION OF BIRTH

When an American mother gives birth in Mexico, is her child a Mexican? If an American family is serving as missionaries in China, are all of their children born in China citizens of China? If a pregnant American woman is visiting Paris and gives birth before her baby boy was expected, is he a Frenchman because he was born in France? If an American couple is visiting India when the wife gives birth to a baby girl, is their girl a citizen of India?

The answer to all of these questions is: NO.

Whenever American mothers happen to give birth in another country, each child is an AMERICAN because the mother is an American. That baby will be registered by the American embassy as an American citizen born abroad. (Sometimes the citizenship of the father is also a factor in determining the citizenship of the child.)

This holds almost everywhere on Earth: Any new child born is registered as having the same citizenship as the mother, no matter where that birth took place.

1. WHERE SOIL GIVES CITIZENSHIP

The United States and Canada are two of the small number of countries that grant automatic citizenship to all BORN WITHIN THEIR BORDERS, regardless of the citizenship of the mother or the father.

When a Mexican mother gives birth in the USA, that child is automatically an AMERICAN citizen. Under current law and practice, the citizenship-status of the mother does not count. All the child will ever need to prove American citizenship is a birth-certificate showing a location of birth somewhere in the United States of America.

2. ENDING BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP

But this 'birthright citizenship' could change. Persons already alive should not lose their citizenship. But the citizenship laws of the United States could be modified to give all NEW babies the same citizenship as their mothers: When the mothers are clearly Americans, so are all of their babies. But when the mothers are citizens of other countries (say England, Germany, Syria, or Russia) then all of their children should automatically become citizens of those same countries upon birth ---without regard to the geographical locations of these births.

In recent years, many other countries have abandoned birthright citizenship. They gave up the principle that all babies born within the borders of a certain country are automatically citizens of that country.

They simply changed their laws of citizenship.

3. IS BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP ENSHRINED IN THE U.S. CONSTITUTION?

In the USA, changing birthright citizenship might not be so easy. Is birthright citizenship enshrined in the Constitution?

There are arguments on both sides. And ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court might be called upon to decide this issue.

Probably the President of the USA cannot change birthright citizenship by a simple executive order.

But quite possibly the law of citizenship could be changed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by the President.

4. WAS THE 14th AMENDMENT INTENDED TO GIVE BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP?

Shortly after the Civil War in the United States, the U.S. Constitution was amended to give FREEDOM to all the former slaves and their children. This was the 13th Amendment (1865).

But this Amendment omitted giving CITIZENSHIP to the newly-freed former slaves and their children. So this citizenship provision was added (in 1868) in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (which also guaranteed a large number of other rights).

However, the specific words of the 14th Amendment did not mention "slaves" or "former slaves". But everyone then discussing this Amendment KNEW that the people being considered were the men, women, and children who had recently been enslaved in the slave-states. The Confederacy was defeated in the Civil War. And the right of anyone to own or hold salves was abolished forever in the United States of America.

The abolition of slavery and the granting of citizenship SHOULD HAVE TAKEN PLACE AT THE SAME TIME and by means of the same Amendment to the Constitution. Then, there would never have been any confusion about which persons are American citizens.

The WORDS of the 14th Amendment refer to "all persons born in the United States", but their MEANING could not have been meant to extend to children born to unauthorized immigrants because the concept of UNAUTHORIZED IMMIGRANT was not yet possible.

Before any laws were created in the USA restricting immigration (beginning in the 1880s), it was not possible to distinguish AUTHORIZED IMMIGRANTS from UNAUTHORIZED IMMIGRANTS because the borders were open for ALL IMMIGRANTS.

And everyone living in the United States was assumed to be a citizen of the USA ---unless some other citizenship was established.

5. EARLIER HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: IS A SLAVE A CITIZEN?

The Dred Scott decision by the U.S. Supreme Court (1857) declared that the descendants of enslaved Africans were NOT citizens of the USA. Rather, they were the property of their owners. In part, this led to the American Civil War (1861-1865), which finally freed the slaves.

The freedom of former slaves was guaranteed in the 13th Amendment (1865). And their citizenship was guaranteed in the 14th Amendment (1868).

6. WHAT ABOUT CHILDREN BORN TO FOREIGN VISITORS?

The 14th Amendment does have this curious phrase: "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof". The purpose of this exception was to avoid giving citizenship to the children born to foreign diplomats while that foreign family was living in the USA.

No one wanted the ambassador from Someplace to start having American children just because his wife was living with him in the USA. The whole family was and would remain CITIZENS OF THEIR HOME COUNTRY, no matter how many children they had in America.

By inference, should this exception also apply to other FOREIGN VISITORS living in the USA? If foreign diplomats are not producing Americans, why should we assume that non-diplomats (who are citizens of other countries living in the USA) are giving birth to American citizens?

As we saw at the beginning of this column, American woman giving birth outside the USA were never assumed to be giving birth to citizens of whatever country they were living in at the time. No, they were all (correctly) assumed to be giving birth to AMERICAN children.

Why not assume the same for foreign visitors to the USA? If we abolish birthright citizenship, all pregnant women will be treated the same, whether they are Americans or citizens of some other country: All babies will have the same citizenship as their mothers.

Anyone ready to READ MORE about birthright citizenship, can find more useful insights here:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/CY-B-USA.html