Debate Over Birthright Citizenship: A Devious Distraction from Needed Reform

Debate Over Birthright Citizenship: A Devious Distraction from Needed Reform

The debate over abolishing birthright citizenship is one more distraction from fixing our broken immigration system. Instead of focusing on comprehensive reform, Republican leaders are proposing constitutional amendments to deny citizenship to “anchor babies” – a derogatory term used to describe children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants. Under current immigration law, some undocumented immigrants may obtain relief from removal if they can show that their departure would cause exceptional and extremely unusual hardships to their U.S. citizen child. An American child, after turning age 21, may also petition for her foreign national parents to become lawful permanent residents of the United States. While birthright citizenship is now a part of the immigration debate, repealing it is not an effective solution, but a distraction from what really needs to be done.