Repeal of Citizenship Clause Would Carry Heavy Consequences
Instead of helping to fix the U.S.’s broken immigration system,
repealing or limiting the scope of the Citizenship Clause
of the 14th Amendment would actually
make things worse by increasing the number of undocumented immigrants and
creating significant bureaucratic and financial burdens for all Americans, according
to a panel of immigration and civil rights experts.
“No,
this would not fix our nation’s broken immigration system,” said
Margaret Stock, an adjunct instructor at the University of Alaska
Anchorage. “In fact, it would break our nation’s immigration
system even further.” Stock was one of sever experts who discussed the
impact
of repealing birthright citizenship during a
panel discussion this week at the Center for American Progress (CAP).
The American Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment defines what it means to be a U.S. citizen and states that “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.” The Citizenship Clause has come under attack by some federal and
state lawmakers due to Washington’s failure to reach consensus on the future of
immigration policy.
The panelists at CAP said that repealing the Citizenship Clause would require a large, new and expensive federal bureaucracy to
investigate the citizenship status of parents before birth certificates could be issued to their newborn
children. Sam Fulwood III, a senior fellow at CAP and co-author of “Less
than Citizens,” a new issue brief, said repeal would put “Big Brother” into
every maternity ward in the country. Based on his research, Fulwood estimated
that departments of State and Homeland Security – which routinely charge fees
for immigrant visas and related services – could charge parents up to $600 to
verify the legal status of each birth. And the verification process itself
could also take weeks, months or even years, he said.
Several panelists warned that repealing or limiting the scope of
the Citizenship Clause would blur
the line between who is a citizen and who is not, creating
a U.S. caste system that would forever relegate those deemed to be of lesser
status from fully participating and contributing to our nation.
“One
of the practical affects of this, though, is really to disenfranchise
individuals who would otherwise be able to help shape their own destiny by
participating in the political process,” said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “Repealing the amendment would betray core
American values, like the belief that every person born in the U.S. has an
equal opportunity at achieving the American dream. Instead, we would have
people born in the U.S. who would be classified as illegal immigrants.”