2.3 Immigration Essay - "Jus Soli"

     Jus Soli

     Jus Soli, this phrase is latin for "right of the soil." This is where I started my research for the topic of birthright citizenship in the United States. I encountered some challenges throughout my research while I was trying to find out weather or not I agreed or disagreed with the choice America has chosen to allow for birthright citizenship. So, in my research I lay out the positive and negatives to the law and leave the topic open for debate because it has backing on both sides of the argument. While researching U.S. birthright citizenship, I learned that immigration is a two way street and that somebody's situation is not as it always seems.

     The Constitution in 1787 states "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction there of." This was the first glimpse of birthright citizenship at the time. Originally, the law was limited to "free whites" and excluded enslaved people and Native Americans. The arguments surrounding slavery in 1857 challenged the birthrights of immigrants. A prime example of this is the Dred Scott v Sandford case. Scott, an escaped slave, sued for his freedom and was not considered a citizen at the time. Scott sued and won the case granting him his freedom and rights as an American citizen. The post Civil-War era lead the charge for equality and eventually total birthright citizenship. Attorney General Edward Bates declared, "free men of color born on American soil were American." This leads into the 14th Amendment which states, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction there of."
     Birthright citizenship has been a topic of discussion for political leaders of the U.S. since it was deemed to be the law. With the latest election of Pres. Donald Trump, immigration has been relevant now more than ever. Although birthright citizenship can be viewed in a negative and demeaning light, it really is not as bad as it seems with all of the media attention that it has drawn. Some of the negative sides of birthright citizenship are shown when 7% of all U.S. births were to a family where at least one parent was illegal. Another issue surrounding birthright citizenship is security. An example of this being Anwar al-Awlaki who was born in the U.S. to illegal parents and granted citizenship automatically because of the 14th Amendment. Al-Awlaki became one of al-Queda's top operation planners and was granted citizenship upon birth. Another down fall comes when there are only 2 developed nations that allow automatic citizenship to a child born in their borders, the U.S., and Canada.
     Although, birthright citizenship is presented with these challenges the idea of birthright citizenship has many positives. Immigrants are now able to hope for a better economic future for their children, and a safer and more educated environment for them to grow up in. Birthright citizenship plays a key role in allowing for diversity and integration of immigrants into American society. By ending birthright citizenship, it creates many problems including, growth of the undocumented population, excludes millions of Americans from society, harms the integration to "one America", and eventually toughens the already broken immigration system.
     The numbers and graphs have been able to tell a story that the media sometimes misses. Although the U.S. and Canada are the only two developed nations that have the idea of "jus soli", there are actually more than 30 countries that have adopted this style of citizenship in their own unique spins. In 2014, 275,000 children were born to undocumented parents this is 7%of all births that year. 1.3 million children live with two parents who are both unauthorized, and 1.8 million live with one legal and one illegal parent. Since the Great Recession, the births to unauthorized immigrants has declined 25% and continues to dwindle.
     Researching birthright citizenship has allowed me to dive deeper into a subject that I came into knowing little to nothing about. I have enjoyed being able to research the data, facts, and topic as a whole. I believe that I came out of this project with the take away that a story is not always as simple as what is on the cover. Birthright citizenship has its positives and negatives, but overall I believe this project helped to open my eyes to the world I live in today and allowed me to see two sides to a story that is sometimes only presented on one side of the other.
Pictures -

This image shows the countries that allow birthright citizenship.

This is an image of the 14th Amendment.

This is an in depth image of the countries that allow the idea of "jus soli".

Sources -
www.pbs.org - This is where I found the data behind birthright citizenship
www.washingtonpost.com - This is where I found information on Wong Kim Ark
www.history.com - This is where I found information on the Constitution and arguments that surround it
www.numbersusa.com - This is where I found information on Anwar al-Awlaki and the US and Canada
Gale Research Database - Information on the 14th Amendment and Constitution