Birthright Citizenship Pros And Cons

On July 9, 1869, the 14th Amendment to the United States constitution was ratified. The amendment granted American citizenship to past slaves and all children born within the justification of the United States thereinafter. While the issue of modifying the document has existed since its conception, it has recently become a hot topic with prominent political figures wanting to end birthright citizenship and bringing the discussion to the forefront of politics. However, this kind of change could have grave consequences and is possibly unconstitutional. The first issue with changing the constitution is that doing so could be seen as discrimination. The reason for this is that the GOP supporters of making the change claim that they want to end …show more content…
“Every year, about four million are born in the U.S.”() that being said, countless of them would lose all their rights as American citizens. This includes both children this includes both children of undocumented parents and those of parents who are legal or that themselves received citizenship from birth. This is because the ending of birthright citizenship would affect who ever received citizenship through the same method; generations of Americans could be hurt. These people would find themselves in trouble, since they would lose access to benefits and help from the state. The whole process would be a mess because of the difficulty of modifying people 's legal documents and accounts such as social security. The people who lose their citizenship will be displaced in the sense that they will not have a country where they are accepted fully fully granted they were born in the U.S. Economically, the repercussions of ending birthright citizenship would be devastating. For example, the people left without American citizenship would no longer fall under certain taxation brackets meaning that the federal and states governments would lose billions in tax revenue which is used to stimulate the economy and fund public goods and services. Also the non citizens would no longer qualify for safety nets provided by the government which is could lead many to fall …show more content…
Constitution. While republican presidential candidates, specifically Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, are pushing for it’s removal, “other candidates and legal experts are split on the issue”() because it is clearly protected by The Constitution. Trump claims he has a number of lawyer on his side the deem it possible and constitutional to take the right but has yet to prove any evidence. Most experts say that it is, in fact, not constitutional since the clear reading of the 14th Amendment decree that all those born under U.S. jurisdiction are American citizens so the only way only way to get rid of birthright citizenship is by either repealing or arranging the amendment. Both options are extremely difficult and drawn-out processes because they involve all branches of the government and many different phases. In conclusion, the 14th Amendment has granted citizenship to innumerable people throughout history and given them the rights that all American citizens are entitled to receive. Taking away the clause for birthright citizenship would deemed as discriminatory towards all immigrants and people of imagination decent with Hispanics likely to face most of the discrimination. From and economic perspective, the nation would suffer declines which would be difficult to mend. However, this right is protected by the constitution and will not be easy to steal from future