Arizona bill would deny citizenship to children of illegal immigrants

[Papa_Complex]

Originally Posted by pauldun170

The sticky point is that the child IS in the US legally and as a citizen is entitled to equal protection under the law.
Putting the law to the side, what is the benefit to society to make this child a ward of the state?

Actually that's the question, which you're assuming an answer to. Again, as I said, I believe that it would be a reasonable accommodation to state that the parents must be in the country legally, for the child to obtain citizenship. Due to the many and sundry rights and privileges attendant to citizenship, I also believe that this should be a reverse onus situation (the parents must demonstrate that they were, in fact, in the country legally).

If this would require a Constitutional Amendment, then so be it. If it could be managed by Supreme Court judgment, as to intent of the 14th Amendment, then all the better.

I do believe that Constitutional protections regarding due process should apply to foreign nationals while within the United States, but that doesn't mean that the results of such exercises of due process should automatically be favourable to them.