I don’t know if I believe in “privilege” but I do believe in luck. I’m lucky to have grown up in a middle class family. I’m lucky to have been born with a fast metabolism (even though it’s sadly slowing down). And perhaps most of all, I’m lucky to have been born American.
Being born American doesn’t mean your life will be easy, but it does mean that you have the chance — and the choice — to make something of yourself no matter how humble or lowly your beginnings. Whether your formal education stopped in the fourth grade like my great grandaddy’s or you grew up on welfare wearing shoes that were two different sizes like my dad, you ultimately are who you decide to be in this country. For my granddaddy, that was a businessman and for my dad, that was a CSO.
A lot of people don’t know this, but my biological father was Dominican and Puerto Rican. If I had been born in the Dominican Republic without the resources to legally immigrate to the United States, I think I would’ve had a dramatically different life.
If I was born poor, in a poor country, where I had a better chance of becoming a prostitute than ever getting involved in politics — I would do everything in my power to get out. If I had children that I was providing for, even more so. I wouldn’t care what laws I had to break or what lies I had to tell if that meant a brighter, safer future for me and my family.
And if I was told that all I had to do was give birth on U.S. soil to secure that future, I wouldn’t think twice about it.
Because even though liberals will never admit it, birthright citizenship is a massive catalyst for illegal immigration, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why.
Coming to the United States through the southern border illegally is a long, expensive, dangerous journey. As desperate as people are to get out of their violent, poverty-stricken home countries — they wouldn’t risk everything making this journey if they actually thought they’d be sent back in a few years.
But birthright citizenship is basically a big ass welcome mat at our border that says “you can stay as long as you’re pregnant” — and the good enough guarantee on ROI that drives illegal aliens to undertake such a perilous trek.
Because once the child is a citizen, the issue becomes separating families — which no one wants to do.
The truth is, you can’t be serious about combating illegal immigration until you’re ready to address birthright citizenship because it’s an incentive that won’t be ignored abroad no matter how much it’s downplayed or ignored domestically.
As long as we offer a friends and family discount on citizenship, we’ll see caravan after caravan, “border crisis” after “border crisis” — without an ounce of progress made. We’ll see the same pictures, the same outrage, and the same song and dance by elected officials pretending to care — and be back at square one next year like we’re waiting for a new season of a Netflix original.
It’s ironic to me that we recently spent a news cycle talking about Elizabeth Warren’s claims of Native American heritage to further her own interests, because the 14th amendment was written for freed slaves but has been bastardized to advocate for open borders and foreign nationals when historically, it hasn’t even protected Native Americans. When the 14th amendment was being drafted, it was openly discussed and unanimously agreed upon that it wouldn’t apply to foreigners (illegal or not) — and probably wasn’t written down because it seemed like common sense. Sadly, common sense is anything but common.
When it comes to birthright citizenship and illegal immigration, people often say that children shouldn’t be held accountable for the crimes of their parents — and they’re right. But they also aren’t anymore entitled to citizenship in the United States when they’re here as the result of a crime than a thief’s children are entitled to stolen goods. And to put things plainly, no matter how noble or honest the intentions of the parents — they’re the ones that put their children in the positions they’re in. The United States government can’t afford or sustain an immigration policy based on vague, emotional talking points and no amount of televised rants or catchy protest signs will change that.
Illegal immigration completely overwhelms public education and costs taxpayers millions in medical bills — and that’s really only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the issues associated with illegal immigration and birthright citizenship. If one or two countries were poor and violent, maybe we could afford to turn a blind eye when people ignored our laws. But poverty and violence are unfortunate realities all over the globe (and our own country tbh), and despite the slogan on the statue of liberty that everyone thinks actually dictates immigration policy, we don’t have the resources or capacity to rescue the billions of people in the world that are suffering. Even if we pushed our immigration admittance to the absolute limit, we wouldn’t make a drop in the bucket in terms of global impact — meanwhile our own society would collapse. When people advocate for self care, many refer to the quote “you can’t set yourself on fire trying to keep other people warm” — and countries can’t do that either.
birthright citizenshipdemocratdonald trumpillegal immigrationimmigrationrepublican
what do you think?