Gretchen's Take: Is 14th Amendment being used as intended?
Donald Trump launches debate on birthright citizenship
In researching the anchor baby segment for today I found it fascinating to learn that the United States and Canada are the only two developed nations to still offer automatic citizenship to children born on their soil. Not a single European county follows the same practice.
Yes its in the United States constitution. But is the 14th amendment being used in the way it was originally intended?
According to the US Census Bureau data and the Pew Research center an estimated 340,000 of the 4 point 3 million babies born in the United States in 2008 were babies of unauthorized immigrants. That's 8 percent of the entire newborn population in this country.
Once those babies turn 21, if they are still here, they can then sponsor other family members to enter the U.S.
According to the center for immigration studies, admitting family members accounts for most of the country's growth in immigration levels. Of the 1,130,818 immigrants who were granted legal permanent residency in 2009, a total of 747,413 were family sponsored immigrants -- 66 percent.
Donald Trump claims he knows lawyers who believe the 14th amendment is vulnerable to the birthright citizenship argument. But so far no U.S. court has ever ruled against it.
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