Thom Hartmann - Should anyone born on US soil automatically have a right to citizenship?

[thomhartmann]

Run time: 09:15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQAO5weWGWc   Posted on YouTube: August 04, 2010 By YouTube Member: thomhartmann Views on YouTube: 17   Posted on DU: August 04, 2010 By DU Member: thomhartmann Views on DU: 794

 
The Thom Hartmann Program can be heard daily M-F 12-3pm ET. Visit www.thomhartmann.com to listen live, join the community or purchase a podcast.

[defendandprotect]

1. Yes --

[JDPriestly]

2. I do think everyone born here who wishes to have American citizenship

should be able to claim it.

We do not define ourselves by our color, race or ethnicity but by the fact that we are all citizens with the equal right to participate in our democratic system of government. We are united by our commitment to the principles set forth in our Constitution.

It is vital to the security and well-being of our country that as many people who live in the United States as possible consider themselves citizens and view themselves as belonging here.

The real American dream, the dream that drove our Revolution and has kept us strong over the centuries is the promise of inclusive, democratic government. We need to invite participation from all who live here. That is why we should extend the rights and responsibilities of citizenship to every child born within our borders or to an American citizen abroad.

Further, because different countries have different laws about who is or is not a citizen, by changing our law with regard to children born here, we could end up with stateless individuals living here who have no right to obtain a passport form any country. That would be tragic.

[joebaur42]

3. GOP argument...

I've seen the GOP argue that people are essentially throwing pregnant women over the border, so that their kid is born in the US and they go right on back to Mexico.

First of all, I've never heard of this. Second, how often could this possibly go down? Surely not enough to warrant altering the Constitution.

P.S. The Founding Fathers are infallible when it comes to the 2nd amendment... but they CLEARLY didn't imagine this abuse of the 14th. But they did imagine the 2nd amendment evolving to cover all sorts of weaponry that didn't exist during the 18th and 19th centuries...

[JDPriestly]

6. Normally, women want to have their babies where their mothers are.

The new health care bill may make it more attractive for women here illegally to go back to their families to have their children.

[Bette Noir]

4. This issue is enough to make me stop listening to Thom.

I tried to call in when he was talking about this yesterday, but couldn't get through. He called it a "fair trade" to revoke birthright citizenship in exchange for ending corporate personhood.

Trade away your own citizenship, Thom. You have no right to revoke the citizenship of generations yet unborn. Ending birthright citizenship would set up a permanent, hereditary underclass that cannot complain about abuse on the job, cannot call the police if they are victims of crime, cannot get educated or access the social safety net, cannot vote... You might as well bring back slavery.

This isn't a momentary, thoughtless lapse on Thom's part, either. He said the same thing last year, right before talking about immigration at a right-wing wing-ding of some sort.

[sulphurdunn]

5. This a serious problem.

Go to any airport and you'll see the concourses are filled with pregnant women wearing burkas, disembarking from international flights, waddling along or knelling on prayer rugs, praying for the death of the Great Satan and plotting to impose Islamofascist law on unsuspecting Americans. Then go to the Canadian or Mexican border and see the hordes of vicious French and Spanish speaking mothers to be with swollen bellies, scaling the walls and fences, pouring across in lemming like waves, washing away the thin red, white and blue line of patriotic minutemen who are finally overrun after expending the last round of ammunition in the defense of liburdy. To arms! To arms! :rofl: