Are they really citizens?

On July 9th, 1868, only three years after the end of our civil war, the United States ratified the 14th amendment. This amendment formally removed the distinction between free men and slaves, and recognized all former slaves as US Citizens.Our original Constitution stated: “Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.” Please, go back and read that again...

Yes, it is true, our US Constitution originally counted only free persons as “whole” persons in determining their population for census purposes, and thus for how many delegates that state would receive in the US Congress. Slaves were counted as only three fifths of a person, and Indians were not counted at all unless they paid taxes.

The civil war won, the people of the United States quickly granted full citizenship to all persons born in the United States, whether born as free men or as slaves with the 14th amendment which states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States;”

Since then, it has been assumed that any child born inside the United States, was automatically a US Citizen.

Under US law, there are situations whereby children born inside the United States are not granted US citizenship. Foreign diplomats stationed and foreign military personnel stationed in the United States do not fall under US Jurisdiction, thus their children are not eligible for citizenship (though they are subject to following our laws). Children born to illegal immigrants should be treated the same.

In the normal immigration process, one requests that the US accept jurisdiction by making application for a Visa, either temporary or permanent, and the US may either accept or deny the assumption of jurisdiction by the issuance/non-issuance of a Visa. Unless the US accepts jurisdiction, than no jurisdiction may be assumed.

Unfortunately, millions of people have bypassed this process and are in the United States illegally. These persons have never been granted jurisdiction, or, by failing to properly renew their Visa, have allowed that jurisdiction to expire. Until now, children born to these illegal aliens were assumed to be US Citizens, whether the parents were here legally or not. Children born to illegal immigrants are not estimated to number about 330,000 per year.

Each year, our government provides hundreds of millions (billions?) of dollars to provide housing, food, medical and other social benefits to these babies. As our Social Service bureaus such as SRS, SSA and HUD are prohibited from asking about the immigration status of persons not directly receiving benefits, it is actually impossible to know how much taxpayer money it costs to fund anchor babies and their families.

In one instance of which I have personal knowledge, a family of five was living in the same relatively nice section 8 housing development as my family. The three adults in this family and one of the children were in this country illegally, and the other child was a US Citizen by birth. They laughed at my wife and I when they found out that we were paying nearly full rate for our rental unit.

This family, with three adults working, claimed to have a joint income of about $5000/month, which put them well above the income limit for subsidized housing, yet, they also claimed they were only paying $50/month in rent. They explained how the landlord thought they didn't have jobs and their jobs couldn't be traced back to them, because they were working under assumed names and stolen social security numbers.

Knowing they were paying $50/month for a $650 apartment, the first question to enter my mind was, “Who ends up paying the other $600/month?” The answer is, of course, the American Taxpayer.

When I talked with one of the apartment complex employees, the employee told me that they were obligated to accept all tenants as long as at least one resident of the unit was legally in the country. As this family had a child who was a citizen by birth, this family could live in this unit for as long as they wanted. As there was no obvious indication of fraud, the apartment complex could not do anything about it. (But that family did move out of there when I said I was going to report them for fraud).

When I lived in Dallas, I saw many illegal immigrants in the SRS office applying for food stamps, WIC and every other benefit possible. Of course, it was all “for the children”, but who actually got the money/assistance? The child? or the parents?

How can we stop our tax money from financing these illegal immigrants?

Kansas State Representative Lance Kinzer from Olathe has taken the first step by entering HB 2367 in the Kansas House of Representatives. This bill requires all persons requesting state aid to prove they are in the United States legally. This bill will be discussed in the Federal and State Affairs Committee this Thursday, 03/08/2007 at 1:30 PM.

This bill is a good first step, however, it will not address the issue of those who use anchor babies and lies to fraudulently obtain benefits.

To fully address this issue, one of two things must happen; either our US Congress, must pass a law defining the children of illegal immigrants either as eligible or not eligible for US Citizenship, or our Supreme Court must make a legal finding of the same.

Will either of these happen? With our Federal governments history of ignoring the populace on this issue, it is highly doubtful we will ever get a law. Will any entity ever file a federal lawsuit (or determine they even have the right to file a lawsuit) and force a Supreme Court ruling?
Either way, we must do something... or it will soon be too late.

You can email Alan at alan@alanfernald.com twenty-four hours a day.