Children Born In The United States

By USCitizen December 9th, 2011

The Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011, introduced on Jan 5 amends the INA to clarify a person born in the US “subject to the jurisdiction” of the US for citizenship at birth if the person is born in the US of parents, one of whom is:

1.a US citizen or national,
2.a lawful permanent resident (LPR) whose residence is in the US, or
3.a foreign national performing active service in the US Armed Forces.

Currently, the US recognizes any person born in the US as a US citizen, ignoring the constitutional requirement under the 14th Amendment that one must also be “subject to the jurisdiction” of the US.

According to estimates from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) released in a March 2011 report on birthright citizenship, approximately 200,000 children were born in 2009, and granted US citizenship, to foreign national mothers legally admitted to the US on a temporary basis, despite the mother owing allegiance to a foreign country. They also estimate that between 300,000 and 400,000 children are born each year to illegal aliens.

The report also stated that in the context of overall population, 192,100 children born to non-immigrant foreign nationals in a single year may not seem too significant, but it must be added to the estimated number of children born to illegals (300,000-400,000) every year.

Recently, 34 people in Maine were recognized as being official citizens of the US. They were not required to go through the testing that most people who want to become US citizens have to go through. The reason being, all the 34-children derived their American citizenship through their parents who have already gone through the naturalization process. Citizenship was celebrated at a special ceremony inside the Children’s Museum and the kids were given their official documents. 33 of them were from Somalia and they left behind a brutal civil war in their homeland of Somalia and the remaining one was from China.