By Camille Taylor
Have you ever studied your family tree or gone on sites like Ancestry.com? If so, you may have discovered your grandparents or great grandparents were born in another country.
The older you are, the more likely you are to have relatives that were not born in the US. Donald Trump’s recent announcement to end “birthright citizenship” raises some frightening questions on how many of our family members would be “Americans” if Trump was successful in repealing the 14th amendment to the Constitution.
The “Citizenship Clause” of the 1868 14th amendment provides two pathways to becoming an American. One is to be naturalized in which an immigrant applies for citizenship, and the other route is to be born in the US or be born to a US citizen. Mr. Trump proposes that children born in the US to undocumented immigrants be sent back to the home country of their parents and that only the “good ones” would be allowed back in. This proposal would require votes of two-thirds of both houses of Congress and three-fourths of the nation’s state legislatures.
If Trump’s proposals were currently the law, Senator Marco Rubio would be deported to Cuba and Governor Bobby Jindal would be deported to India. Then someone deemed “worthy” would be named to rule on whether they are “good enough” to be allowed back into the country. If the 14th amendment had been repealed, Marco Rubio would not have been allowed to become a senator and Jindal would have been deported prior to seeking his governorship.
People like former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, physicist, Albert Einstein, naturalist, John Muir, and songwriter Irving Berlin, could have been deported prior to seeking naturalization due to their parents’ immigrant status. Where would we be without the all American songs, “White Christmas” and “God Bless America?” Depending on your views on illegal immigration, you may have gotten very excited when you read Trump’s proposals. Be careful what you ask for. Someone close to you like your grandparents or great grandparents could be in jeopardy of being deported if their parents never got citizenship in this country.
So, if these family members were born in the US, they wouldn’t be seen as “birthright citizens.” Let’s hope they were naturalized…When Trump says the “good people can come back in,” I’m still scratching my head about how “good” will be defined, and who will “judge” that. Good luck with that plan!
Camille Taylor, a retired Counselor from Normal Community High School, has been an educator in this community for 34 years. She is active in the community currently serving as a church elder and board member for both the Baby Fold and the YWCA. She has been recognized by the YWCA as a Woman of Distinction for education, a Martin Luther King Jr. award winner for the City of Bloomington, a Distinguished Alumni by the College of Education at Illinois State University, a Human and Civil Rights award winner for the Illinois Education Association, and the H.Councill Trenholm Award recipient from the National Education Association for her work with diversity. She lives in Bloomington with her husband, Arthur, and is a mother and grandmother.
The opinions expressed within WJBC’s Forum are solely those of the Forum’s author, and are not necessarily those of WJBC or Cumulus Media, Inc.
