Birthright Citizenship Should Be Abolished (Essay Sample)

Name Instructor Class Date Birthright Citizenship Should Be Abolished Birthright citizenship refers to the practice of automatically granting citizenship to any child born within the US or any of its possessions, regardless of the parent’s legal status in the US. There has been a debate on whether the birthright citizenship should be abolished. On one hand, birthright citizenship portrays the American society positively in the eyes of the world. The American society welcoming and assimilating to people from diverse backgrounds and that to be an American, there is no need for blood connections with natives. On the other hand, birthright citizenship might be harmful to the American society. This latter side of the debate carries more weight. In this light, the primary argument of this essay is that birthright citizenship should be abolished because it will harm the nation in the long term. First, automatic birthright citizenship should be denied because it is motivating illegal immigration. It has attracted women from foreign countries to go to the US and have children. People can decide when to have children and as such many people go to the US when they plan to have children. In some extreme situations, pregnant women nearing delivery from foreign countries have pretended to be tourists in the US when actually they just wanted to have their children in the US. This has led to high numbers of US-born children born to illegal immigrants. For instance, Pew Hispanic Center reported that in 2010, there were 4.5 million children in the US whose parents were in the country illegally. Pew Hispanic Research has estimated that 350,000 (or 8%) of all births in the country involve at least an illegal-alien parent. Similarly, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) has reported that almost 200,000 children are born every year to foreign women who enter the US mainly as visitors such as tourists, guest workers, and students. In order to ensure that the family stays united, the parents of children who get automatic citizenship stay in the US for life. Moreover, they bring their other siblings, if any, with arguments of family re-unification. This poses the danger of making America a nation of immigrants, underlining why birthright citizenship should be denied. Second, automatic birthright citizenship should be abolished because it poses a serious threat to the country’s security. Although it might not be all children, some children born in the US to illegal parents might pose a serious threat to the security of Americans when they become radicalized, if ...