What is the deal with politicians and their quick-fix ideas for handling illegal immigration? Time after time, we see Washington trying to put a Band-Aid on a gushing wound. This past week was no variation from that track record; Senator Lindsey Graham (R) of South Carolina went on Fox News’ “Happening Now” to discuss the possibility and the need to revoke the 14th Amendment of the United States’ Constitution which reads:
1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
But let’s back up a second and examine the 14th Amendment. The amendment was adopted in 1868 as one of the Reconstruction Amendments. Its Citizenship Clause, the one in question, was included to overturn the ruling of Dred Scott v. Sanford, which ruled citizenship rights were not to be extended to blacks. So, the clause initially sought to protect former slaves and their children from being denied citizenship in a country where they did not choose to come to or be born in.
So why the issue now? Illegal immigration is, undoubtedly, one of the hottest issues of this era, and certainly of this year. It’s a common occurrence for immigrants to enter the United States illegally, or via a temporary visa, while pregnant, in order to give birth on U.S. soil. Birth in the borders of the United States grants the child U.S. citizenship by default and this has many Americans in an uproar as they argue illegal immigrants are cheating the system, and that those children born to illegal immigrants should not be granted U.S. citizenship. But amending the 14th Amendment won’t solve the nation’s immigration issues.
America’s immigration problems go further than amending amendments and SB-1070s, legislators are looking for quick-fix ideas to maintain their numbers and increase constituents’ support. In a recent Opinion piece, CNN political analyst, Roland S. Martin, notes that “[w]e have members on both sides of the aisle who care more about protecting their precious jobs and partisan poll numbers…[s]o instead of leadership, we get asinine suggestions like this one, which will do absolutely nothing about the estimated 10 million illegal immigrants in the country.”
What is needed is comprehensive immigration reform and Washington needs to implement an extensive overhaul of the broken system. Rather than funneling money into the border and wasting time debating amendments, legislators need to find common ground and apply that time and funds into a more permanent and effective solution. We’ve witnessed plenty of failed attempts to secure the borders, millions of taxpayers’ dollars have been sent to increase border security with the little to no impact on the wave of immigrants flooding the border. Bush’s wonder wall? That only increased death rates of immigrants as they moved their trek further out into the Arizona desert.
Another blog post raised a striking point about these children – “[y]ou just can’t deny somebody something based on circumstances far beyond their control…[a] child whose parents are immigrants, illegal or otherwise, has absolutely no control over that fact…[i]t’s downright criminal and barbaric to deny certain newborns the rights and opportunities given freely to others based solely on their parents’ legal status.”
Children born in the states are often separated from their families in cases of deportation.
Why shouldn’t these children be afforded the same rights, privileges, and protections as a child born to legal immigrants? The status of the parents is a matter outside of the equation. Children are innocent victims to a battle waged between and within party lines as Americans continually fail to address the matter in a coherent fashion.
I do have to appreciate Lindsey Graham’s nearly-missed inclusion of immigrants world-wide as opposed to just those from South and Central America, even though he later states that “[w]e just can’t have people swimming across the river having children here.” And of course Fox News doesn’t fail to deliver those striking images of Latino immigrants, only further perpetuating the existing stereotypes of immigrants.
And here’s some quick food for thought for those Conservative Christian voters, “what would Jesus do?” It seems quite simple actually, for the bible reads in Exodus 22:21, “[y]ou shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien,” and further expands on this thought in Levitcus 19:34, “[t]he alien who resides among you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself.”
So I’d presume that answers the question. Unless, of course, there’s any “refudiations” to be made – Mrs. Palin, perhaps?
Morning Soapbox 