Arizona lawmakers have jumped back into the arena of national debate over illegal immigration by proposing a bill challenging automatic citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants. The bill was introduced Thursday after Arizona last year adopted country stricter law enforcement statewide immigration rules.
Rep. John Kavanagh, who presented the initiative, said the goal is that every state in the nation enacted such a law, but to take the dispute to the courts with the hope of reducing the costs associated with granting automatic citizenship. The goal is to have a court rule that a child born in the United States is a U.S. citizen only if one parent is a U.S. citizen or legal immigrant.
“The result of this is that immediately become entitled to all benefits from social security to the cheese, which increases the cost to the states,” Kavanagh said.” And beyond that, it’s irresponsible to citizenship based on the location of a GPS in at birth.”
It is the second time this year that state legislators have questioned the 14 th Amendment of the Federal Constitution. A similar proposal was presented last week at the Indiana State Assembly. Another 10 or 15 states could introduce similar legislation this year. Supporters of the initiative argue that the 14 amendment specifies that citizens are guaranteed to persons born in the United States are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the country, so it does not apply to children of illegal immigrants because these families are loyal only to the United States.
Rep. Daniel Patterson, a critic of the initiative, said the move will generate demands and distract the state of affairs as to improve its battered economy. In addition, he said, will not help the image of Arizona.
