Time For A Real Debate on Citizenship

One hundred fifty years ago, it may have made sense to declare that any child born in America is an American citizen. But in today’s mobile society, such a rule is not only silly but dangerous. To his credit, Lindsay Graham has called for a revisiting of “birthright citizenship.” John Cornyn and other prominent Republicans have joined Graham.
Such a review of birthright citizenship is long overdue, in part because the number of “anchor babies” born to illegal immigrants is astonishing. One hospital in Dallas, Parkland Memorial, delivers around 11,000 babies a year to mothers who are non-citizens, a large majority of them illegals. That represents nearly three-quarters of all babies born at Parkland. Around 60,000 babies a year are born in Texas alone to non-citizens. All of them, under current law, enjoy full rights of American citizenship. That birthright citizenship, as currently construed, is largely a scam is obvious to everyone. Michael Ramirez comments; click to enlarge:
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A substantial majority of Americans favor a revision to birthright citizenship, so naturally the Democrats–as with all issues on which they are being clobbered politically–want to take the issue off the table:

State Rep. Rafael Anchía, D-Dallas, accused Republicans of using the births to generate an explosive election issue.
“They’re pulling the pin on the immigration grenade,” he said. “It’s all about the November elections and continuing to use the immigration issue as a wedge to win votes this fall.”

“Wedge issues,” too, are those on which Democrats lose. The fact is that, contrary to the assumption of most liberals, American citizenship is important. This country needs a rational citizenship system, operating in tandem with a rational immigration system. Today we have neither.

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