The Problem,

The number of illegal immigrants or undocumented aliens is said to be about 11 million people, the problem with this number is that it is a guess and it could be more then twice or much less. Then there is the problem of what exactly is an illegal immigrant, is it someone who came across the boarder illegally and should this include those who cheated the system to become a citizen? Across the river from where I live they have a local joke, what is the most confusing day – fathers day. How many illegal citizens are there and do we count them in to the illegal immigration problem? There is no denying this problem when it is so bad it becomes a joke and the worse part is we know little more then a guess as to how bad this problem is. We know the facilitators in this crime like welfare, Sanctuary Cities that protect illegal immigrants to politicians selling a false dream, but do we include them in this problem? We cannot stop illegal crossing of our boarders without first stopping the allure of illegally crossing our boarders and this must be part of our enhanced border security. We should also consider in some part facilitators like having two different languages and more. This language problem has gone on for so long we now have a new language, Spanglish. I work with someone that speaks this Spanglish, a hard worker and a good person but a huge problem communicating when Spanish speaking and English speaking don’t understand what he is saying, he is trapped. Immigration should be a success story but all too many are trapped in a subculture of poverty and dependence. You should make no mistake that a crime is being committed and that facilitating this crime is also a criminal act. This problem is much larger then a few immigrants sneaking over the boarder for some seasonal work but also tied to other problems like illegal drugs and other crimes. There is a problem when too many are focused on the pathway to citizenship when it should be the pathway to the ladder of success, and the pathway to citizenship only is a crime. The biggest problem in this is we don’t know how big the problem is, we don’t have an exact number of criminals, what is a criminal, who is the criminal and no definitive on the damage being done. How do we fix a problem if we don’t know exactly what the problem is? I can only guess this problem is enormous and we should be demanding an equally enormous task of definitively knowing what the problem is before we try to fix this problem. We must not focus on bits and pieces but solve this problem entirely.

From the Start, 

In William Blackstone Commentaries,

“subjects are such as are born within the dominions of the crown of England” (via jus soli alone)…
“which cannot be forfeited, cancelled, or altered, by any change of time, place, or circumstance, nor by any thing but the united concurrence of the legislature.”

This being one of the grievances found in our Declaration of Independence, perpetual automatic citizenship via jus soli. We Declared our Independence from this law of soil we were born on and the tyranny and slavery this caused. Deciding Citizenship has always been contentious, in our fist Constitution, the Articles of Confederation this power belonged to the States but was irregular.

“The new Constitution has accordingly, with great propriety, made provision against them, and all others proceeding from the defect of the Confederation on this head, by authorizing the general government to establish a uniform rule of naturalization throughout the United States.” Federalist No. 42 James Madison.

We maintained many of the laws from the sovereign States and made them a uniform law and this included the ability to renounce Citizenship and crimes that shall result in the loss of Citizenship if voluntarily performed. These included allegiance to a foreign State or principles thereof and other such acts of treason especially with a hostile State. Accordingly we take an oath of Citizenship,

“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the armed forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”

The principals of Citizenship became radically changed by the United States revolution and the political disposition of the people was also changed from subjects of the crown to citizens, a citizen of this new nation. A citizen now means an active component of this new nation by your actions and participation by choice, as found in our Declaration of Independence.

“When we are considering the advantages that may result from an easy mode of naturalization, we ought also to consider the cautions necessary to guard against abuse. It is no doubt very desirable that we should hold out as many inducements as possible for the worthy part of mankind to come and settle amongst us, and throw their fortunes into a common lot with ours. But why is this desirable? Not merely to swell the catalogue of people. No, sir, it is to increase the wealth and strength of the community; and those who acquire the rights of citizenship, without adding to the strength or wealth of the community are not the people we are in want of.” James Madison.

Birthplace Citizenship,

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was added, Section 1 requires due process, equal protection and a subject to the jurisdiction clause. Sen. Lyman Trumbull, who inserted the phrase;

“The provision is, that ‘all persons born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens.’ That means ‘subject to the complete jurisdiction thereof.’ What do we mean by ‘complete jurisdiction thereof?’ Not owing allegiance to anybody else. That is what it means.”

Sen. Jacob M. Howard, the author of the Citizenship Clause;

“The first amendment is to section one, declaring that all persons born in the United States and Subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the States wherein they reside. I do not propose to say anything on that subject except that the question of citizenship has been fully discussed in this body as not to need any further elucidation, in my opinion. This amendment which I have offered is simply declaratory of what I regard as the law of the land already, that every person born within the limits of the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, is by virtue of natural law and national law a citizen of the United States. This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the Government of the United States, but will include every other class of persons. It settles the great question of citizenship and removes all doubt as to what persons are or are not citizens of the United States. This has long been a great desideratum in the jurisprudence and legislation of this country.”

There has been great contention over the Jurisdiction Clause, should birthplace citizenship be unconditional or should it be conditional to the Jurisdiction Clause and whom should this apply to. In United States v. Wong Kim Ark, this became the prevalent law used to regulate whom and under what circumstances an individual has the privilege of jus soli, mostly unconditionally. If this were to only to apply to diplomats, enemy forces or former slaves and their descendants then “ALL persons born or naturalized” would not be in this amendment. The privilege of jus soli without regulation has been exploited by the likes of George Wiley, Wade Rathke, Cloward-Piven and others. The privilege of jus soli without regulation is related to the current illegal immigration problem and economic problems, and this must be resolved as part of the immigration reform.