Delivering Babies in the U.S. Won’t Work Out Anymore

The U.S. Congress is seeking to delete the provision of “birthright citizenship” that confers American citizenship to all children of non-citizens born in the U.S. territory, including those whose parents are illegal workers.

If the provision is eliminated, it will be critical and will fundamentally change the U.S.’ immigration policy by drastically diminishing the number of illegal workers. Korea’s unique situation in which families go to the U.S. to deliver babies will also disappear. The dominant analysis is, however, that the deletion of the provision is not very likely at this point.

The latest edition of CQ Weekly, the U.S. magazine providing information on Capitol Hill, reported, “The discussion on Amendment 14 of the U.S. Constitution stipulating the territorial principle could be deliberated by the Supreme Court, beyond the level of Congress.”

The discussion at the Congress level which the CQ Weekly mentioned refers to the presence of a bill that includes the abolishment of the controversial birthright citizenship provision by scores of Republican Party members such as Tom Tancredo and Jeff Flake, who belong to the Immigration Reform Caucus at the end of last year. The magazine said, “So far, the number of co-signers stands at 83, (total member of the House of Representatives are 435).”

Amendment 14 states that a person who falls into U.S. judicial power either by being born in the U.S. or becoming an American citizen through naturalization is granted U.S. citizenship. The provision was created to confer U.S. citizenship to blacks freed from slavery in 1868.

The magazine pointed out, “If Congress establishes a law forbidding the practice of the birthright citizenship provision, the Supreme Court has no choice but to examine whether or not such restriction is against the Constitution.”

However, despite the movement toward the elimination of the birthright citizenship provision, the controversy surrounding the matter is very likely to continue.

Members of the Immigration Reform Caucus insist the logic, despite what the Constitution states, that the spirit of the Constitution enacted in consideration of black slaves doesn’t apply to illegal workers. For the reason of their movement, they also cite that the U.S. and Mexico are the only countries that grant nationality according to one’s place of birth among western countries. They say that western European countries have already abolished the territorial principle in the middle of the 20th century.

Seung-Ryun Kim srkim@donga.com