Comment & Debate
“Go back where you didn’t come from.” Economist.com. Aug 12th 2010: “Americans tend to boast too often about aspects of American society that aren’t really exceptional or admirable, but the American model of immigrant assimilation is truly something to boast of. Few countries in the world assimilate immigrants as well as we do. (Canada and Australia come to mind.) There’s no reason to tamper with a machine that works. We need to address the problem of undocumented aliens in this country by offering a pathway to legal residency, by reducing economic disparities with our southern neighbours, and by doing more to control our southern border. But denying citizenship to children born in the United States shouldn’t be part of that solution, especially not when there are so darn many of them.”
“EDITORIAL: Born in the USA: The flawed case against birthright citizenship.” Chicago Tribune. August 15th, 2010: “Keeping the existing policy would be more in keeping with the American tradition of openness and inclusion. Those are a birthright we should be careful not to compromise.”
Linda Chavez. “The Case For Birthright Citizenship.” Wall Street Journal. August 11th, 2010: “Our history has been largely one of continuously expanding the community of people regarded as Americans, from native-born whites to freed slaves to Indians to naturalized citizens of all races and ethnicities. Since the abolition of slavery, we have never denied citizenship to any group of children born in the U.S.—even when we denied citizenship to their parents, as we did Asian immigrants from 1882 to 1943. This expansive view of who is an American has been critical to our successful assimilation of millions of newcomers.
Conservatives should not betray these values based on a misreading of American history and legal precedent. Instead of amending the Constitution to eliminate “anchor babies”—the ugly term opponents of birthright citizenship use to describe these U.S. citizens—Republicans should be helping them become good Americans.”