Anchor babies should not be U.S. citizens
Meaningful immigration reform cannot take place until a better definition of citizenship exists. The Constitution must be amended so that future citizenship is assigned at birth and within the United States, its territories, on U.S. military bases overseas, and on diplomatic posts, only to children whose mothers are American citizens or women who have been granted permanent residence.
All other children born within the United States and its territories would not be citizens of the United States. This would remove the issue of anchor babies from the discussion and eliminate the growing problem of birthplace tourism. And because men can’t give birth, the citizenship of the child’s sperm donor should never be taken into account.
David Paul Davenport, Fresno
This story was originally published January 29, 2017 at 3:45 PM with the headline "Anchor babies should not be U.S. citizens."