Amendment 14

All persons born or naturalized 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 or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

The first amendment is very lengthy. The amendment gives newly freed African Americans citizenship. It also prohibits any individuals who served in the rebellion or provided aid to the rebellion from holding office in the US government or in the US military.

The Immigration Crisis: Rhetoric To Repeal Birthright Citizenship Intensifies



By Lee A. Daniels

Two prominent Senators in the last week have said they believe the Senate should consider revoking the automatic right of American citizenship granted all children born in the United States – including children of undocumented immigrants.


Senators Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, and Jon Kyl, of Arizona, both Republicans, said they support the Senate holding hearings on the matter because the right of automatic citizenship has been abused by undocumented immigrants and is a significant part of the problem of illegal immigration.


Revoking the birthright citizenship provision of the Constitution – which is lodged in the post-Civil War 14th Amendment to the Constitution – would require a two-thirds vote of both the House and the Senate, followed by approval of three-fourths, or 38, of the states.


If the idea ever moves beyond the talking stage in Congress, it would undoubtedly provoke debate the institution has seen since that over the enactment of the civil rights acts of the 1960s. And, if a proposed amendment passed there, it would embroil the country in controversy for years, as each state legislature considered the measure.


Few observers expect the idea to be seriously considered in either House of Congress.


But the Graham and Kyl statements are a sign the most bitter debate over illegal immigration is intensifying in the wake of a federal court ruling last Thursday [2] blocking the implementation of key provisions of controversial immigration enforcement law on the grounds that it interfered with the federal government’s authority over immigration enforcement.


Arizona officials have already sought an expedited ruling on that decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals insane Francisco, and, whatever that higher court, rules, there’s no doubt the Supreme Court will be the final arbiter of the case.

Some advocates for tougher federal efforts contend that eliminating birthright citizenship is essential to curbing illegal immigration. They say that the 14th Amendment provision was actually meant to protect African Americans born into slavery in this country before the Civil War from being denied citizenship rights by the states of the Old Confederacy. They assert that now that provision motivates many undocumented immigrants to come to the U.S. to have children – because those children then automatically become U.S. citizens and, as such “anchor” their undocumented parents in the country as well.


But critics of the idea point out that the Supreme Court has continually ruled that the birthright-citizenship provision applies to all children born in the U.S.


Others, such as conservative Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson, President Bush’s former chief speechwriter, have gone further, declaring the idea a violation of American principles.

In a brief column last Friday, Gerson wrote “The authors of the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed citizenship to all people ‘born or naturalized in the United States’ for a reason,” pointing out their intent to directly repudiate the Dred Scott decision.


Gerson continued, “They purposely chose a standard of citizenship – birth – that was not subject to politics. Reconstruction leaders established a firm, sound principle: To be an American citizen, you don’t have to please a majority, you just have to be born here.”

This article discusses the 14th amendment and its effect on America today. Children born of illegal immigrants who are living in America are given American citizen ship. It is a sticky piece of today's immigration problems.



Queen Latifah is singing a song from the movie Hairspray. Hairspray is a story about rights being denied to African American citizens in the 1960s. It remeinds me of the 14th Amendment because even though the African Americans were given citizenship it was just the first step in a long battle.