Suppose someone was born in the U.S. and lived here his whole life. Do you really want to deport him because his parents are illegal? Punishing children for the sins of their parents makes me uncomfortable. I don’t think there should be automatic citizenship for someone born in the U.S. to illegals, but I do think there ought to be a path to citizenship for people who were born here, obey the law, and are not a drain on society.
So the illegals cross the boarder and have their kids under your 'legislation'. Do you keep the kids in the US as a drain on our society and kick the parents out or what?
We can’t support these people anymore. This isn’t about someone like that, but that there are children being used as anchors for the rest of a family of practically twenty. The problem is that the child isn’t the drain, but the key to fat checks and benefits.
That is not under discussion here. Focus on the issue - Should that child be considered a US citizen?
Many foreign children are born here and live here legally many years, but are not automatically citizens, for example, children of diplomats, entertainers (William Shatner, Michael Fox, Richard Burton), athletes (the entire NHL), etc.
And suppose that just before he is born, his parent rob a bank for millions of dollars. He grows up in wealth and style. Should he be "punished" by the loss of his lavish lifestyle when when his parents are finally caught and the money is recovered?
The problem is that the parents can't be deported because it would separate the family and he must be provided with government benefits because he is a citizen. Fix those problems and I have no problem with making him a citizen at 18 or 21.
>>are not a drain on society.<<
Please explain your definition of this “not a drain on society.”
Once they turn 18 and are adults in their own right, they can go back “home” and come in the FRONT door like all the other LEGAL immigrants.
“Suppose someone was born in the U.S. and lived here his whole life. Do you really want to deport him because his parents are illegal?”
Absolutely yes!!!
They already HAVE citizenship — of whatever country their parents are citizens.
Offering them some sort of short-cut to US citizenship because their parents are criminals makes no sense. You say the kids have done nothing wrong, but they are FAR from ideal candidates for citizenship. They were, after all, raised by criminals in a household that did not value American laws. Every child learns its sense of right and wrong from its parents, and these children are necessarily deficient in that sense.
They should be rounded up and sent home along with their parents. Their parents should be barred from ever applying for a return to the US because they are KNOWN CRIMINALS. Their kids should not be held liable for their parents crimes, but all that means is that they can wait in line with their fellow countrymen, and given no special preference just because their parents were criminals barred from ever visiting the US again. In fact, they should be denied any way to visit the US that is not tied to an intent to become a legal citizen — no student visas or tourist visas, only a work visa where the employer has posted a million dollar bond — because their upbringing in the US would make it to easy for them to overstay a visa and disappear into the population.
The parents committed crimes by coming here illegally. I sincerely doubt they care about their children other than to use them as a reason NOT to be deported.
We put people in prison all the time — should we agonize over that just because they have children?
The fact is, felons don’t give a damn about their kids otherwise they would not commit crimes and be sent to prison. The same goes for illegal aliens, only in their case the whole family gets deported, as there is no cruelty in keeping families together, now is there?
I don’t buy their cries, “But we did it for our children”. Bull poop!
Right now the law is written so that custody follows the parents, not the child.
When the illegal parents are deported, the minor child, REGARDLESS OF CITIZENSHIP, goes with the parents.
The US citizens is free to return upon reaching 18. HOWEVER any children born of that citizen are only citizens of the usa IF the parent US citizen has spent ten years in the USA.
uscis.gov