Birthright citizenship is the idea that
those born in a country are granted automatic citizenship to that country and
have the right to access all opportunities and resources afforded them by that
state. It is one of the most important pieces of legislation against the dire
status of “statelessness” which humanitarians consider to be a dangerous and
perpetual state of limbo for some 4,000-6,000 people currently in the U.S. Many
people arrive already stateless or have it stripped of them once they enter the
country. If they are refugees, such as the Ethiopians of Eritrean descent and those
who fled the Soviet Union, they are fleeing their home countries because of war
and persecution. Once they arrive, if they do so illegally, they are “stateless”.
This is dangerous because it creates a silenced community without any rights-
they cannot access healthcare, they have no political voice, and education is a
far-fetched dream. If caught by
immigration, they are detained for inconsistent stretches of time, ordered to
leave the country, and then remain here because they literally have no where
they can go.
Good ole Donald Trump has made
blatantly racist and bigoted statements about immigrants (particularly those of
Latino descent) in the hopes that he will ramp up his bigoted voters. He has
claimed that he would like to rescind birthright citizenship if elected. This
is what humanitarians call a “crisis”, leaving possibly hundreds of thousands
in a state of limbo in the U.S. “Statelessness” isn’t good for anyone and it
most often seems to target people of color and those most vulnerable globally-
those seeking asylum in the U.S. We can see from our readings that “retroactively
denying citizenship” has had drastic and costly effects on both Haiti and the
DR, leaving some 200,000 people in “statelessness”.
Birthright citizenship is in the 14th
amendment. What Trump, and many of his GOP candidates are calling for is
blatantly against one of the most highly regarded and consistently upheld
documents in the U.S. Trump has declared that “anchor babies” are not in fact
citizens, claiming that he knows “many good lawyers” he would agree with him on
that. What Trump is truly doing is using inaccurate interpretations of the law
and inflammatory language to gain headway in the polls. Trump is tapping into
the far-right conservatives and nativists of this country, appealing to them
through his hateful rhetoric.
Deportation is a real worry for
many immigrants, even those here “legally”. Birthright citizenship is not just about
the local business men Trump doesn’t want to see in his neighborhood. It is
about human beings. It is about the livelihood of families and communities. It
is about asylum seekers from all over the globe who literally have nowhere else
to go. Deportation threats are any easy way to control a minority group,
primarily of color and lower SES, by creating a community of fear and
discouraging assimilation through that fear.
http://www.businessinsider.com/bill-oreilly-donald-trump-immigration-deport-birthright-2015-8
I think it's safe to say that Trump's record on immigration and race relations is deplorable at best and ignorant to say the least. You should check out the link I shared in my post regarding presidential candidates and birthright citizenship. It plays directly into some of what your saying about Trump, as well as some of his cohorts in the GOP.
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