Salon: Born in the US? You might not be a citizen soon
- First, any law changes cannot be retroactive.
- Second, the rest of the world, except for some countries in North, Central and South America, base citizenship on your parent’s citizenship – not on where you were born. Even if this were to occur, a child born in the U.S. would still have a right to citizenship in their parent’s country of citizenship in nearly all cases.
- Third, the Constitution says being born in the US makes you a citizen and it is unlikely that the Supreme Court could approve changes to this. Lower courts have already made that decision.
- Fourth, this is a unique privilege that non-citizens have in the U.S. They can be in the US legally or illegally, give birth to a child here, and that child then has dual citizenship – in the US and the country where their parents are from. Americans who give birth in say, Germany, have no right to citizenship in Germany. This gives non-Americans a dual citizen immigration privilege that Americans do not have.
None of this context is mentioned in this propaganda messaging from Salon.