Anchor Babies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Anchor Babies - Essay Example Generally, an anchor baby can be defined as a child is born to an illegal immigrant or undocumented parents especially in the United States of America and who by the operation of the U.S law acquires an automatic citizenship thus sponsoring the citizenship of other relatives into America.1 According to the principle jus soli, any baby delivered in the United States automatically acquires U.S citizenship. This doctrine is bolstered by the dint of section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment which provides as follows; ‘All persons born or naturalised in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens of United State†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ Being an inclusive, the doctrine of jus solirenders anyone to become part of U.S citizens merely through birth; citizenship therefore becomes a birth right. A closely related doctrine is that of jus sanguinis, restrictively though in its application. This is in the sense that it solely defines citizenship by blood. In the U.S, the law on citizenship allows for citizenship under both jus soli and jus sanguinisas well as by naturalisation, viz by the operation of the law to move from a legal permanent resident to citizen. As such, the public debate insinuated above has focussed on alterations of such doctrines which have the effect of tendering an amendment of the U.S Constitution. Needles to say, efforts have been made towards this course. For instance, the amendment by Representative Elton Gallegly (Republican from Simi Valley California) who in June 1995 recommended in vain an amendment to the U.S Constitution to terminate automatic citizenship for U.S born children whose parents are undocumented immigrants. H Other efforts include the enactment of several