Birthright citizenship is a wonderful and helpful process and one that has brought America great individuals and some who have even been elevated to positions of leadership in the United States. Walt Disney, Colin Powell, Alex Rodriguez, Olympia Snowe and many others all had parents who migrated here and followed a process that allowed them to become U.S. citizens.

Birthright citizenship is a law that should never be, nor ever have been abused. Yet, under a flawed interpretation of the wording of this amendment, undocumented foreign pregnant women come to the United States for the sole purpose of having a baby here in order to claim the right of citizenship for that child, and hopefully for themselves.

The wording in Section One of Amendment 14 is pretty clear. It states that (and refers to) “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, AND SUBJECT TO THE JURISDICTIONS THEREOF. …” Being subject to the jurisdictions thereof is a pretty clear indicative of insuring those individuals involved in the process supported by this amendment are “law abiding.” Coming to the United States undocumented is illegal. And those who continue to encourage that activity and harbor illegal aliens for this purpose, or any other, are breaking the law as well.

There are some who argue that less than one percent of the total births in the U.S. are the result of those who are not following U.S. immigration procedures, regulations and laws and therefore, the number is far too small for anyone to be concerned.

In Southern California, so called “maternity hotels,” where the sole purpose is to offer birthing services to women coming to the U.S. as “maternity tourists,” are being shut down by police and federal agents, albeit, these agencies are just now scratching the surface of the problem.

It’s too bad that an effort has to be made to insure those who work hard to corrupt the meaning of Section One of the 14th Amendment are brought under control by more legal language and policing efforts. But there are people in the United States who are making their living by offering those who come here illegally, solely for the purpose of having their child born here, a way to do that. They’re breaking the law and in many instances charging enormous rates to offer this sort of “safe harbor.” It is not only illegal, it’s immoral.

In some cases, these illegal birthing agencies offer their services for fees from $10,000 upwards to $50,000, and, in particular are targeting wealthy Asian women who feel they would benefit by having their child be named a U.S. citizen having been born inside our borders. Other birthing agencies are finding themselves deluged by those crossing our Southern borders in Texas and California, again, for the sole purpose of generating birthright citizenship for the newly born child and a possible citizenship hook for the parent.    

Senator Vitter, of Louisiana, has introduced language to clarify Section One of this amendment insuring that citizenship rights are given to only those “aliens” who legally “reside” in the United States. He is sponsoring an effort to eliminate the idea of “maternity tourism” in America, along with citizenship for newborn babies born in the U.S. of those who may be here legally, however, with temporary short-term visas for a visit, school, business or otherwise. 

Under the current administration, it’s doubtful that any such language will be accepted. But perhaps with new leadership, and with some luck, language will be adopted for Amendment 14 that will bring reform and common sense, as well as some first steps toward righting a broken and flawed immigration process; a process that is causing far too much distraction for the citizens of our great nation and our lawmakers.

PETER KAPUSCINSKI has lived in Buckingham for the past 10 years. He’s a retired business executive in the chemical industry and is currently a farmer and orchardist. His email address is petekap@centurylink.net.