1004_Group_P1

Position Paper – Part One

Name: **Alexis Hosticka**

Instructions: Please use this form as an organizer for writing your portion of your group position paper. You will be writing the opening paragraphs of the paper. You should clearly and thoroughly identify the problem that you are addressing. You may use your own research and the research from other members of your group. Be sure to follow the MLA citation format that you used when completing your JRP. Your portion of the paper should be a minimum of one page in length.


 * I. There is a problem in society today. That problem is**

Children of illegal immigrants that are born in the USA are given instant citizenship because of the 14th Amendment. This means that as tax-paying U.S. citizens, we are funding education, health care, and more for these children. As a country with an increasingly growing financial deficit, we cannot afford to be paying for this. One can think about the situation like this: imagine someone has stolen money, then invests this stolen money. The interest or returns of this investment do not legally belong to that person who stole the money. This is a metaphor to the situation of illegal immigrants if one thinks of the bank as as the United States, the stolen money as an illegal immigrant, and the interest as a child of the illegal immigrant. The child should not be a legal citizen. The 14th Amendment was added to the United States Constitution in 1868, a completely different time for immigration, it was actually meant to help former slaves become citizens.

The way the 14th Amendment works now is just giving illegal immigrants more reason and determination to sneak into the USA. Too many immigrants are doing this and is becoming a problem. Children who are born in the USA are citizens but that doesn't mean their parents are. What would happen when the parents get deported? Would the children live in an orphanage, or would they move with their parents to their native land? This can separate families and make life hard for the children. If we deny the children on illegal immigrants to be citizens, then it would be easier to find the family and deport them back and our immigration problem will be that much closer to an end. Parents stay in America illegally because they now have a child who is a legal citizen. The number of illegal immigrants in the United States is going up year after year because people are coming to America for the birth of their child and then not leaving.

Some Americans believe that the government should have stricter rules on undocumented immigrants. Others believe it should be less strict. Democrats have been for policies to help undocumented immigrants in gaining citizenship. Illegal immigrants are coming to the United States and having children here and are staying because their children are citizens. Many say the Constitution should be changed and some say otherwise.


 * II. Facts that demonstrate that there is a problem are: (You may use your own sources and the sources of the members in your group)**

In 2008, there were 4 million children born in the U.S. to at least one illegal parent. Recently, the numbers have continued to grow, as" 350,000 babies were born in the U.S. between March 2009 and March 2010 to illegal parents" (Solis). So many illegal immigrants come to America illegally and giving birth to their children here. Since the children are born in the U.S., they are legal citizens and therefore the parents and children stay here even though the parents are illegal. From a 2008 Census, it says **"**340,000 children were born to illegal immigrants in the United States in 2008" (Lacey). Many people call the children of parents who come here for the birth of that child as "anchor babies" because their parents are making sure they are born in the United States so the children will be legal citizens. For example one woman, who was eight months pregnant, walked across the desert with scissors with her, just in case she went into labor and had to cut the umbilical cord (Knickerbocker). It is clear that many people just want to come to America so their children can be citizens and so that their family can stay.

In general, it has been proven that birthright citizen ship is a lure for foreigners when they consider sneaking into the U.S. This is a lure because the parents know that their childrens' educations will be paid for and that they will receive public benefits, all funded by taxpayer money (Gomez). These parents, however, can still be deported back to their respective countries of origin, potentially causing legal problems as well as causing the government to have to pay for their deportation.