Pro
“This country isn’t about to end birthright citizenship, the longstanding practice under which children born on U.S. soil are granted citizenship even if their parents came here illegally.
The political will doesn’t exist to get a constitutional amendment through Congress followed by ratification by 38 states. It’s equally unlikely that even a Congress and White House controlled by Republicans could muster enough support to pass a law pretending the 14th Amendment doesn’t mean what it seems to say.
Among other things, birthright citizenship helps spur assimilation and integration of young immigrants into the larger society. And if they’ve actually grown up here, how are they less American than anyone else?
Yes, birthright citizenship may attract some pregnant ‘birth tourists’ who come to this country to have children. But the vast majority of immigrants, legal and illegal, come for other reasons — and mostly for economic opportunity.
Aug. 27, 2015
It’s fine if GOP candidates want to push for tighter restrictions on immigration and stronger enforcement of existing laws. That’s the responsible way to reduce birthright citizenship. But it is both futile and counterproductive to go after a right conferring citizenship on people who have spent as much of their lives in this country as the rest of us.”