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Broken Borders, Broken Birthright (Part II of II) PDF Print E-mail
by Wes Riddle    Mon, Aug 18, 2008, 12:02 AM

The challenge of assimilating too many people too quickly is often dismissed as racism, yet collisions of cultural patterns and norms creates the potential for social violence, and this is readily and empirically provable from our history. There are also understood, though arguable rates of assimilation; whereas, exceeding the rates produces unhealthy and unnecessary conflict and stress in society. The Babylonian confusion in having multiple languages too, as well as the expensive provisions to alleviate the same is similarly dismissed and likewise unnecessary—borne every day by Americans, who speak English and never cast one ballot to speak or do their business in any other. Economists will argue macro and microeconomics, but the local competition for jobs is real and felt, as is the transfer of wealth both within and without the national economy. Moreover, through fraud or physical presence alone, the development of political constituencies occurs, aided by institutions and organizations with special interests and ties to lobbyists. Illegal aliens press informally and formally to be heard and represented, thus reshaping the political landscape through sheer demographic weight.

It is not a prudential compassion to let the soup line invade the kitchen or kill the cook. Moreover, at some stage we have to ask if there isn’t a responsibility others have to take care of their own home and countries, not by milking someone else’s cow but by raising their own; not by breaking and entering a better place owned by someone else, but by making a better place where they live and doing the work Americans did in their own backyards. The foreign policy of the United States is strange and insipient that serves as an economic and political safety valve to corrupt and tyrannical regimes worldwide, particularly at our own doorstep. Indeed, more immigrants would likely be welcome if immigration were distinct from joining the polity, or laying claim to social services; and if the children of illegal immigrants—and legal immigrants on work status—were not conferred full rights of U.S. citizenship through the accident of birth and an asinine misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment.

One of the biggest magnets for illegal immigration is the policy whereby children of illegal aliens born within the geographical limits of the United States are entitled to U.S. citizenship. The policy is a perversion of American political tradition in that, under the Constitution the premise of citizenship is based on consent of the governed. Citizenship does not exist by nature but is created by law, and according to political science professor Edward Erler, the identification of citizens has always been essential to sovereignty. The Constitution mentions but does not define our citizenship. The first definition entered in 1868 as the result of the 14th Amendment, passed in the immediate aftermath of the War Between the States. The Amendment created dual state and national citizenships, however mandating that state law not abridge the basic rights due according to national citizenship. Familiar language includes: "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."

We have somehow come to believe that anyone born within the geographical limits of the U.S. is automatically subject to its jurisdiction, but this renders the jurisdiction clause superfluous and without force. If this had been the intent the framers of the Amendment, they would have simply said that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are thereby citizens. Indeed, during debates on the Amendment, northern congressmen assured the whole country that while language was intended to make freedmen (freed slaves) and their children citizens, it did not make Indians or their children citizens! Indians were not subject to the same jurisdiction; that is to say, Indians owed allegiance to their tribes. Illinois Senator Lyman Trumbull, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee rose to support this view, saying that, "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" meant "not owing allegiance to anybody else and being subject to the complete jurisdiction of the United States." This excluded persons born in the United States who were foreigners, aliens, or who belonged to families of ambassadors and foreign ministers. Senator Jacob Howard of Ohio compared the right of expatriation favorably with the right of citizenship. In other words, jurisdiction was the critical qualifier to right of citizenship, more so than place of birth. It is absurd to think the 14th Amendment confers the boon of American citizenship on the children of illegal aliens, and difficult to fathom how those who defy American law could derive benefit for their children—or that any sovereign nation would allow it. The same confusion has led us to tolerate dual citizenship, when framers of the 14th Amendment specified that citizens must owe their exclusive allegiance to the United States, in order to be included in its jurisdiction. Broken borders and broken birthright are the harbingers of America’s decline and eclipse of the American century so-called, unless we stop the madness and begin to reapply horse sense to what is happening.

_____________________

Wesley Allen Riddle is a retired military officer with degrees and honors from West Point and Oxford. Widely published in the academic and opinion press, he ran for U.S. Congress (TX-District 31) in the 2004 Republican Primary.

Comments (6)add comment
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written by Old Red , August 18, 2008

There is a concept in law known as "black-letter" law, where a statute is so plain and unambiguous that it requires no need of interpretation or guesswork to know what it states. Such is birthright citizenship in the 14th Amendment. "All persons born in the US" is plain enough. No qualifiers there about nationality of parents. "Subject to the laws of the US". Well, that applies to everyone here except those with diplomatic immunity. No one is claiming that locally born children of illegals are immune from legal process or "above the law".

The bottom line is that anchor babies are Americans, plain and simple. Either they have birthright citizenship, or no one does.



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written by Bob Reagan , August 18, 2008

Wes:

The idea expressed in your first sentence is demonstrably correct. What continues to cloud the situation is the erroneous equating of race with culture. Culture and race are not the same, and because a human being has a certain biological ancestry does not, ipso facto, determine his culture. Historically, there certainly has been has been a lot of congruence because of the communication and transportation difficulties. Only in the past 150 years has that changed, and changed so fast as to outstrip human capacity to deal with it in many cases. Neither are cultures defined by styles of artistic expression. Cultures are value systems, and they can be judged accordingly. I judge a values system that produces ideas that hold that an individual person’s sovereignty over himself provides the standard of value, and has produced ideas that conquer disease, famine, and yes, other cultures, as superior. A number of years ago, the American Anthropological Association passed a resolution to the effect that categorization of human being by race is scientifically meaningless. Nevertheless, our government continues to insist we classify ourselves in that manner.

Old Red:

The bottom line of your observation is 100% correct. I might add that the alternatives to birthright citizenship are doubtless fraught with many unintended (by many of those who would like to change) consequences.



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written by randye , August 19, 2008

" Nevertheless, our government continues to insist we classify ourselves in that manner."

No, the identity groups and their masters who have a vested interest insist we classify ourselves in that manner.



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written by manny s , August 19, 2008

I have read the 14th amendment over and over and I can not find the part that says except illegal aliens and Indians all are citizens. Then wes goes on to make some convoluted argument about jurisdiction to which I say,, if the Indians were not citizens then why did the US take their land and then set rules as to what they could or could not do,,,,you cant have it both ways. What I read about that time period is that the argument was made that since Mexicans were part Indian they could not be citizens but that went out the window in 1924. This is an attack directed at Latinos, you don’t like the change and this will be part of the right wing plan to try to change the 14 amendment or redefine it. Whats funny is that for a guy that quips about judges that makeup laws, wes wanted “All persons born or naturalized in the United States” to be interpreted as just for white or black folk that are under the ‘jurisdiction’.
Wes keeps repeating the myth about welfare [laying claim to social services] cant get social services without a social security card,, trust me on this one,,, now if citizen children are getting wic, they are American citizens and you have no beef. Wes having gone to west point and oxford you should know full well how the US has meddled in Mexican affairs for a very long time, made up a war to steal north mexico and has influenced mexico against their best interest then we wonder why mexico is so messed up. If you just think about the past for a moment and had whites treated and respected black folks as equal there would have been no need for 14th amendment unlike the Spanish whites that colonized mexico they included the Indians in society albeit at the bottom but included. Good luck changing the 14th amendment.



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written by Bob Reagan , August 20, 2008

randye, You are correct. However, they use the power of government to coerce the people to classify themselves. In the last two censuses, and whenever I am asked for my race or ethnicity, I enter "human". Care to join me?


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written by Old Red , August 21, 2008

Did anyone else notice that one of those "illegal anchor babies" just won a gold medal for the US at the olympics?



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