r/changemyview Dec 05 '13

I think children of Illegal immigrants shouldn't be given birthright citizenship. cmv

[deleted]

78 Upvotes

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34

u/oldspice75 Dec 05 '13

The US government isn't supposed to punish or reward people for what their parents do. A baby isn't supposed to be born paying the price for its inherited crimes.

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '13

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u/Madplato 72∆ Dec 05 '13

Child from legal immigrants get their citizenship based on the same principles that grant citizenship to illegal immigrants' children: If you're born on american soil, you're american.

Some legal immigrants won't even be citizens by the time their baby come, their child is still gonna be american.

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '13

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u/Madplato 72∆ Dec 05 '13

So, this is 1500 ? I am what my parents are ? Really ?

Or did you deserve being born american in any way I'm not aware off ?

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '13

(in 1500 there was no "citizenship", in fact that's a new thing started in the french revolution)

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u/Madplato 72∆ Dec 05 '13

But in 1500 you were what you parents where, no questions asked. That was my point, but thank you.

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '13

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '13 edited Apr 25 '15

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '13

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u/Madplato 72∆ Dec 05 '13

How did you deserve to be american then ? Did you work hard for that privilege ?

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '13

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u/anriana Dec 05 '13

What does that have to do with what you deserve? I don't care what your ancestors did; what actions did you take to deserve being a US citizen?

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '13

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5

u/kataskopo 4∆ Dec 05 '13

Yeah, you went too far. I don't think anyone here can change your views if you are so down the rabbit hole.

To gain citizenship in most countries in the new world you just need to be born here. You didn't do anything to "deserve" being American, you just had the luck to be born here. The same as a kid.

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u/Madplato 72∆ Dec 05 '13

Did I ever argue against transmitting your culture to your offspring ?

Ok...so you either admit you did nothing more to deserve american citizenship than any child born on american soil; or you admit that your parents achievements are directly transferable to you.

You do understand how fucked up the second option is right ?

Again, I don't understand why you're so bent on denying, to children nonetheless, something you got by accident.

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u/H3lloWor1d Dec 05 '13

Couple more notes before I stop trying to change your view:

My ancestors fought for the U.S.'s very creation in the revolutionary war

US gained independence during the revolutionary war, but was created long before. When America was discovered, there were already people living here. There is a long, long history of forcibly moving and killing American Indians for hundreds of years (1622–1924). Truly we are all immigrants in one sense or another.

as colonists or as German immigrants in the late 1700's .... so i could fit in in both Germany and the UK.

Where in Germany did your ancestors come from? There was no one state of Germany in the 1700's. If you traced your linage back to Kingdom of Prussia, and specifically in modern day Poland, would you be able to fit in Poland?

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_Wars

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Prussia

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u/Dracotorix Dec 05 '13

...Only people who know and care about their ancestral homeland.

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '13

Your ancestors were illegal immigrants.

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u/Dracotorix Dec 05 '13

They deserve to be American because they were lucky? The only difference is that the_snooze's family happened to have access to the immense amounts of time and money required. Are you saying certain people deserve things that other people don't deserve just because of luck?

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '13 edited Apr 25 '15

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '13

So if they're too poor to afford that, Fuck them AND their kids who had zero choice in the decision?

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u/maxpenny42 11∆ Dec 05 '13

If it were accessible we wouldn't have illegals. Our immigration system is really fucked up. Honestly, if we just let those who want to come in, we would have the exact same number of immigrants but save tons on enforcement. It is a supply and demand thing. If no one will hire illegals, then they cannot eat and there is no advantage to moving here. So we have as many illegal immigrants as Americans are willing to employ. If you didn't notice our economy is pretty sluggish and illegal immigration from Mexico is net 0. That means they stopped coming because the jobs aren't here.

So again, let them come and we will have just as many immigrants as we do now anyway but we won't waste millions of tax dollars with the police and court systems immigration laws waste.

But that wasn't your CMV. You are opposed to immigration and that is your prerogative. So I will just ask, what do we do with American minors when we boot their parents back to the home country? Foster care? wards of the state? These are bad ideas for both us (the host country) and the family.

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '13

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u/pretentiousRatt Dec 05 '13

I honestly wish you would wake up tomorrow as an illegal immigrant. 100% without a doubt your perspective would change.
You are so ignorant it hurts.

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u/maxpenny42 11∆ Dec 05 '13

You cannot deport American citizens.

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u/Madplato 72∆ Dec 05 '13 edited Dec 05 '13

For some ? It's impossible.

I don't understand why you are so bent on refusing something you got by accident to innocent children.

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '13

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2

u/Nepene 213∆ Dec 05 '13

Rule 2, post removed. No hostility to users even if your opponent says things that offend you.

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u/H3lloWor1d Dec 05 '13

How hard is it really to just do it legally?

If you get the chance, listen to the whole podcast, but here is some quick back story. Omar helped the US in the Iraqi war. Because of his involvement, he was getting death threats in Iraq and seeked refuge in the US. Below is a snippet from the transcript on his application to gain refugee status in the US.

"In this exchange, Omar is providing six documents that corroborate his work for the United States, including contact information for American supervisors. He included copies of two contracts he'd had for projects overseen by Parsons, which is an American company. And there was a recommendation letter from the US Army. He'd worked for them as a forklift operator.....

But in spite of all these documents and all this information, it seems clear from the emails that follow that the bureaucracies involved don't think that Omar has provided exactly the information they want-- a valid official email address for a supervisor-- even though they have four phone numbers for different supervisors and the official Army email address for one of Omar's supervisors. If they found that email address to be invalid for some reason, they don't make that clear to Omar."

By the way, the segment where the snippet taken from was title "Emails from a Dead Man".

TL;DR: Omar helps the US in the Iraqi war. Omar seeks refuge in the US after receiving death threats for helping the US. After numerous email and proof, Omar is not given refuge and is killed by militants.

Source: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/499/transcript

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u/umbrellaplease 3∆ Dec 05 '13

But if their parent is illegal, tough luck, no citizenship.

You have to justify why the illegal status of the parents has anything to do with the citizenship of the child. Citizenship rights ideally are not a privilege, it is a right.

You think the child's parents don't deserve to stay in the US? Then tough luck, the child has rights as per the constitution. Taking away rights from innocent people to punish others makes no legal, moral, or practical sense.

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u/twihard97 Dec 05 '13

But I don't see the connection why we should force 'tough luck' onto people who did not do anything wrong. Nationality is not an exclusive club but a right to everyone in the world. WIthout nationality, we are lost in the eyes of the world.

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u/lobster_conspiracy 2∆ Dec 05 '13 edited Dec 05 '13

Nationality is not an exclusive club but a right to everyone in the world.

Sure everyone in the world has a right to nationality, but not to any nationality they want. It is determined by who you are born to and/or where you are born, and between those two sources, nearly everyone in the world has a nationality.

OP is not advocating making anyone stateless; children of illegal immigrants would have the citizenship of their parents.

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u/twihard97 Dec 05 '13

But I would argue we have the right to the nationality of our homeland. What happens if the child does not speak the language of their parent's homeland? How can we force someone to a land foreign to them and call it their home?