Born in the USA

Born in the USA; I was… born in the USA. That’s how I acquired my legal status as a citizen of the United States of America. I was born here. That’s how most Americans acquire their US citizenship status. It’s the law.

The US Constitution, Amendment XIV, Section 1 specifies:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States 

GOP presidential candidate, Donald Trump, is right about a lot of things he says. I appreciate his candor. But when he says that so-called “anchor babies,” i.e. children born in the USA of undocumented immigrant mothers, are not US citizens, he’s flat out wrong according to the 14^th Amendment. They acquire their citizenship status the same way I did and rightfully so.

If Mr. Trump and others want to change that fact, there is, in my opinion, only one way to accomplish it – ratify a Constitutional Amendment. He’ll have to change the Constitution. Good luck with that, Donald. Its radical positions like that which substantially diminishes his chances of becoming the GOP nominee, much less President of the United States.

Trump also says that if elected President he would deport every single undocumented immigrant in the nation – all 14 million of them. They all have to go, says The Donald. After they’re deported he would expedite a process to allow the “good” ones back in so that they could acquire some kind of unspecified legal status short of citizenship.

Again, good luck with that, Donald. Even if it were theoretically possible to accomplish such a monumental task, the costs in terms of both money, logistics and man hours would be astronomical – hundreds of billions, if not, trillions of dollars.

And under our present laws, each of those 14 million people would be entitled to constitutional due process of law – that means they’re entitled to notice, hearing, and the right to an attorney, a trial and an appeal.

In short, Trump is advocating an immigration solution which would, if implemented, bankrupt the United States treasury and hopelessly bog down the federal judicial system. That’s not going to happen, Donald.

I agree with Trump, however, that our immigration system is broken and requires a reasonable solution. Something must be done about the millions of people who have come here without permission, and something must be done to prevent others from doing so.

I think President Trump could build his border wall and, like he’s promised, have the Mexicans pay for it. That’s feasible. A protocol of enhanced border security is feasible and doable. If anyone can do it, he can.

But deporting 14 million people en mass is simply not feasible. It’s not practical. It’s not wise. It’s not even desirable. That’s because the overwhelming majority of those 14 million people are beneficial to us. They’re beneficial to our economy. They contribute their share. We have to find a way for them to stay and to acquire some form of legal status.

Instead of deporting them we might better give them a realistic chance of staying in the country as long as each individual meets reasonable criteria. We should declare a moratorium during which each individual would be called upon to register their identity and whereabouts with the government just like all the rest of us who have legally acquired our status.  I was legally registered by birth. Others have been legally registered by naturalization. That’s the law.

Those who choose to voluntarily register and can demonstrate reasonable and necessary qualifications to stay (no criminal record, for example) should be allowed to stay upon certain specified terms which would require them to maintain such qualifications. Those who qualify under the law should acquire legal status – not automatic citizenship – just a form of legal status which allows them to stay.

Those who do not choose to register, are not qualified, or who enter the country without permission after the moratorium has ended, should be subject to immediate deportation and denied any opportunity to return legally; they should be blacklisted. So anyone who refuses to register, qualify, and thus acquire some form of legal status should be deported for good.

I suspect that all of the “good” ones out of the 14 million – the ones who should be allowed to stay -- would register and take their chances with the law, while the rest of them, the “bad apples,” if you will, wouldn’t. Those are the only ones we should seek to deport.

The anchor babies must be allowed to stay in any case because they are citizens; -- they were born in the USA.