If children of illegal immigrants are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, can they be tried in an American court?
The intent of the 14th amendment is to prevent the creation of second-class citizens via legal obfuscations that pretend that some of the people in the United States are not the full kind of “person” who is entitled to the rights it guarantees.
We had some problems with that sort of thing for a century or so.
Babies brought into this world on American soil are exactly who this amendment is designed to protect. They start their lives here, they grow up here, and therefore they are called citizens BY LAW.
Now if you don’t want them to be citizens by virtue of their birth on American soil because their parents are not citizens or illegal, I am with you.
But the 14th amendment CANNOT BE USED for this purpose.
The constitution has to be amended.
Those who are born to an alien parent whose country has a nationality law that automatically makes them a citizen/subject of the alien parent's country are not subject to the complete jurisdiction of the U.S. and are therefore NOT born U.S. citizens.
U.S. Secretaries of State have been quite explicit about that.
See post 93:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3011750/posts?q=1&;page=51#93