Citizen by birth

Do you think its fair or right that if you were born here or on some other country, you become a citizen of that country, regardless of the nationality of your parents?

Like even if the parents are just tourists on vacation here and then the child ended up being born on US soil, s/he is entitled to becoming a US citizen if not automatically?

It just came to me when I heard someone talking about telling a pregnant woman from another country to visit the US and give birth here so that the child can petition them someday and they can all live here.

This is clearly a "right" that can be abused, but considering how hard it would be to raise a child of American nationality in another country (child will have no rights in the parents country) for ~18 years, then I do not think this is a big problem.

This is abused to ridiculous proportions.

Take a couple that moves to the US for one year because one of the two is on a F-1 student visa to learn English or whatever. Get pregnant in the US, give birth in the US, and you have a child that's a citizen.

F-1 visas do not (they can't) forbid a woman from getting pregnant in the states.

But it still does not automatically give the parents right to stay in the US.

I don't, because citizenship should also entail some cultural identity, generally inherited by growing up in a country. However:



Seems like common sense, really.

I like Briain's idea. One of the parents should be a legal citizen of the country.

regardless of my birth place or parent's nationality,I would be American either way.

Times have changed since the 1800's. Laws, some of them, have to evolve with change.

I see no real problem with birth being nationality. Being born into a country is usually considered the basic way of being a citizen. A German couple gives birth to a child and the child is considered German regardless if the child's parents were born in Sudan before they immigrated to Germany. Now, if we could add a single clause to the 14th amendment I would prefer it to be

"All persons born of legal citizens or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

Edit: I slightly misread the original post. No, I don't think it's right or fair for a person who was born in a country is automatically a citizen. You should be born or at least one legal citizen for a parent. As someone mentioned earlier with the British Citizen or being a legal resident of the U.K.

Works like this in most of the countries applying some common sense when creating laws. With that said, ALL HAIL THE US!

I agree with what a lot has said already, that atleast one parent should be a legal citizen or atleast is a permanent resident of the country - not tourists or students who would only be here for a year or two then just go back to their country along with the child.

I also believe that times do change, and some rules were made befitting the era on when it was made and the needs and situation of that time.

Guess it just makes me wonder what being a citizen really is, is it really just a list of legal stuff and technicalities, im probably wrong but...

And I just read that you dont even have to be in the US, its enough to be just born in one of its territories like Guam or puerto rico, I dont know if I misunderstood that.

I don't think it's such a big deal, as mentioned above it should only apply if one of the parents is a legal citizen of said country.....But the question is, what about those who are born in international territory such as on a plane or on a boat?

I think it really doesn't matter - your nationality is a combination of your genetics and where you've lived - but the law doesn't feel the same way.

The biggest problem I can imagine in America is that a child cannot become president if he isn't born in the country. So, if an American couple take a trip to France, and she goes into premature labor and pops out the kid on French soil, he'll never be able to become president of the United States. Even if he's the reincarnation of George Washington or the true son of God or whatever - just because his baby ass hit the air of a different country, he'll forever be ineligible for the presidency.

I can understand not wanting someone who lived in a different country for the majority of their life or childhood as president, but there should be some sort of loophole for people that are simply born in other countries and never live there.

Then again, I suppose that has to deal with birth certificates, and I'm not sure how that sort of thing is handled. Could you wait and get a birth certificate from America if you had the baby in Germany?

There are some "details" that effect it but, generally, if a child is born of two U.S. citizens the child is considered American.

Just found this, about children of US citizens being born outside of the country/territory:

Through birth abroad to two United States citizens
A child is automatically granted citizenship in the following cases:

1.Both parents were U.S. citizens at the time of the child's birth
2.At least one parent lived in the United States prior to the child's birth.

Through birth abroad to one United States citizen
A person born on or after November 14, 1986, is a U.S. citizen if all of the following are true:

1.One of the person's parents was a U.S. citizen when the person in question was born
2.The citizen parent lived at least five years in the United States before the child's birth
3.A minimum of two of these five years in the United States were after the citizen parent's 14th birthday.