Born in the US but not American?
 

What is your take on the proposal to deny citizenship to babies born in the United States to illegal immigrants?

Besides the obvious satisfaction that these proposals bring to all the racist zealots in the US; Is there a rationale behind the proposal?

Re: Born in the US but not American?
 

There is a proposal to amend the constitution for this? Silly.

If you are born in the US, you are a US citizen. If someone is seriously proposing this, it will go nowhere. Not only would it not go anywhere absent the constitutional provision, but the enhanced requirements of a constitutional amendment would make it absolutely dead in the water.

Re: Born in the US but not American?
 

The rationale is not to reward illegal immigration. Obviously not the most humane policy though.

Re: Born in the US but not American?
 

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There is a proposal to amend the constitution for this? Silly.

If you are born in the US, you are a US citizen. If someone is seriously proposing this, it will go nowhere. Not only would it not go anywhere absent the constitutional provision, but the enhanced requirements of a constitutional amendment would make it absolutely dead in the water.

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I'm not so sure. I responded to sirio in the mexican wall thread with this poll . It seems to me that the majority of Americans are pretty upset about illegal immigration and if you get rid of that loophole as well as increase enforcement, you would reduce the amount of illegals.

Re: Born in the US but not American?
 

I think a lot of the problems stem from auxillery problems from illegal immigration. For instance, its unlikely that a pregnant mexicam laborer has health insurance or the money to pay for a hospital visit, but the hospital can't refuse them. This means that rates go up for everyone else. Schooling is the same way. No SSN means no taxes means you aren't paying for all of the public works projects, but you're enjoying the benefit. I don't think this measure will get very far, but I think a guest worker program might alleviate some of the problems associated with undocumented illegal immigrants.

Re: Born in the US but not American?
 

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...No SSN means no taxes...

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This, actually, is sometimes +EV for the US. When undocumented workers pay taxes, and in many cases they do thru automatic withholding, they don't get a refund - they don't file. And the FICA portion is never credited to their phony SSN number.

Not a major point, but a lot of folks don't think about that.

Re: Born in the US but not American?
 

I would think most would have to be paid in cash, right? The business might pay taxes, but I don't see how anyone without a SSN could get a checking account. Ofcourse, this lends itself to those check-cashing places which really just rip people with no SSN off, but that's a whole different can of worms.

Re: Born in the US but not American?
 

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What is your take on the proposal to deny citizenship to babies born in the United States to illegal immigrants?

Besides the obvious satisfaction that these proposals bring to all the racist zealots in the US; Is there a rationale behind the proposal?

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If some women are having their babies in the US to get their kids citizenship, then this amendment might reduce that. That seems like a rationale. Of course, we all know that anybody who opposes illegal immigration is a racist zealot, so it is irrelevant if there are any rationale arguments anyway.

Re: Born in the US but not American?
 

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If some women are having their babies in the US to get their kids citizenship, then this amendment might reduce that. That seems like a rationale.

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Yes, that's the rationale. It's not a good one.
There are MAJOR problems:
If the baby is not a US citizen, then what citizenship do they have?
If the baby is abondoned (legally or illegally), then what citizenship?
Will other countries comply?

Of all of the arguments against illegal immigration and of all of the methods to reduce it, this is the most absurd and cruel.

Re: Born in the US but not American?
 

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If some women are having their babies in the US to get their kids citizenship, then this amendment might reduce that

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I think you are confusing the issue, usually these women are not illegal immigrants, that's a different problem.

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Of course, we all know that anybody who opposes illegal immigration is a racist zealot

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Not really, most american people oppose illegal immigration and most are not rascist zealots, but of course some people in this forum qualify [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]