Letter: Birthplace shouldn’t guarantee citizenship

Wednesday, May 30, 2007 | 7:21 a.m.

I agree with Frank Musaraca's letter of May 26, allowing that the children of people who are in the U.S. illegally should not automatically be awarded citizenship in this country. As a former Customs agent, he should know that it is the Constitution of the United States that grants citizenship to all people born inside our borders.

The 14th Amendment states in the first sentences of Section 1: "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." This amendment was ratified in July 1868. It was meant to ensure that all former slaves were granted citizenship, not to make children of illegal immigrants citizens of the U.S.

Although the language seems quite clear, it was not always interpreted so clearly. Most Indian tribal members, especially those who fought on the side of the South, were not granted citizenship until 1924 , when the Indian Citizenship Act was passed. It read "All noncitizen Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States ... are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States ..." Why was this act necessary if the language in the Constitution was so clear? Maybe the language of the 14th Amendment should be clarified further to exempt those people born of illegal immigrants from automatically becoming U.S. citizens.

Who in our Congress would be brave enough to propose such a change to the Constitution?

C. David Culbertson, Las Vegas