Children Of Illegal Immigrants

If Ivan Boris Doe and Juan Batista Roe embezzle money from their employers, fail to pay lawful taxes, rob banks and on-the-street citizens and put all of their illegal gains in a trust fund for their children, are those children entitled to those funds? I think not.

If Ivan Boris Doe and Juan Batista Roe illegally come to the USA and engender children here, are those children entitled to the benefits of US citizenship? That is a debatable legal issue!

Section-1 of the 14th Amendment to our Constitution gives the rights of citizenship only to those persons under the jurisdiction of this nation. Illegal immigrants have, by their unlawful entry into the USA, avoided that jurisdiction. Therefore, they have no more rights to give the highly valued fact of citizenship to their children born here than would the above noted Ivan Doe or Juan Roe have to pass on their ill gotten gains to their children.

This concept has not been tested in the Courts; But, it should be. After all, the 14th Amendment was designed to deal with slaves who had just been given freedom and NOT immigrants.




AMENDMENT XIV
Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868.
Note: Article I, section 2, of the Constitution was modified by section 2 of the 14th amendment.
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. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.