Ron Paul Quotes.com 2003 Ron Paul Chapter 38 Ron Paul Quotes.com: American Citizenship Amendment 20 March 2003 Home Page   Contents Congressional Record   Cached Not linked on Ron Paul’s Congressional website.

American Citizenship Amendment 20 March 2003 HON. RON PAUL OF TEXAS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, March 20, 2003 2003 Ron Paul 38:1 Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce the American Citizenship Amendment. Under current U.S. laws, any person born on American soil can claim American citizenship, regardless of the citizenship of that child’s parents. This means that any alien who happens to give birth in the United States has just given birth to an American citizen, eligible for all the benefits and privileges afforded to citizens. 2003 Ron Paul 38:2 Mr. Speaker, this is unacceptable and is far from what our Founders intended when they drafted the Constitution. It undermines the very concept of citizenship as enshrined in the United States Constitution: to be constitutionally entitled to U.S. citizenship one must be “born . . . in the United States” and “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” This second, and most important, part means that in order to gain U.S. citizenship one must owe and actively express allegiance to the United States in addition to the act of being born on United States soil. 2003 Ron Paul 38:3 What the current state of events has led to is a booming business in smuggling pregnant mothers over the border to give birth to new “American” citizens, who in turn become eligible for all the benefits thereof. Practically, what this does is cheapen citizenship: rather than impart all the obligations and responsibilities of being an American it becomes merely a ticket to welfare and other benefits. The history of the United States is that of immigrants: individuals from diverse backgrounds accepted the obligations of citizenship in exchange for the great benefits of living in the freest nation on earth. 2003 Ron Paul 38:4 This proposed Constitutional amendment restores the concept of American citizenship to that of our Founders. This legislation simply states that no child born in the United States whose mother and father do not possess citizenship or owe permanent allegiance to the United States shall be a citizen of the United States. It is essential to the future of our constitutional republic that citizenship be something of value, something to be cherished. It cannot be viewed as merely an express train into the welfare state.

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