According to Stacy Campfield, if you don't like their parents, the State does not have to issue a birth certificate. Mr.Campfield posts about his amendment that would prevent the state from issuing a birth certificate to a child born in the US to two illegal alien parents.
His "logic" goes like this:
(1) If both parents are here illegally, then they are not under our jurisdiction, and therefore, their baby is not automatically a citizen.
(2) Citizenship is a Federal matter, and birth certificates are issued by the State. Even if the child is a US citizen, the State has no obligation to issue a birth certificate.
Wow.
OK, let's apply a little bit of real world logic here, not the stuff that passes for it in the mirror maze of Mr. Campfield's mind. If a man is in this country illegally, he is subject to arrest and deportation. He is given a hearing to determine his status and that all applicable laws regarding his case are met. He has legal avenues to pursue to apply for asylum. If he is incarcerated during the process, he has civil rights that must be observed. If he commits a crime while in the US, he can be charged, tried, convicted and sentenced, regardless of his immigration status.
Now I'm not a lawyer, but the above seems to suggest that our illegal alien is certainly under local, state, and federal jurisdiction.
So much for point number one.
As for point number two, if Mr. Campfield had finished reading the 14th Amendment, he would have gotten to the part about "...No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." That's pretty simple to read, and it says that if a person is a citizen, then the state cannot pass any law that would abridge their rights and privileges, and withholding a birth certificate would certainly do that very thing.
I understand that we need to get control of immigration, but we need to do it intelligently, not with stupid amendments that will never stand up to a constitutional challenge. I don't care for the "anchor baby" loophole either but I don't see any way to close it without causing worse problems down the road.
Posted by Rich at June 23, 2008 3:11 PM | TrackBackUnless of course if you are adopted. Most adoptees can't prove their birth due to the sealing of the original birth certificate. If their amended birth certificate looks like mine, we adoptees will be subject to special investigations courtesy of Homeland Security.
Posted by: Amyadoptee on June 24, 2008 9:33 AMUh, not exactly, Amyadoptee. I, too, was adopted as an infant. My original birth certificate is locked deep away in the coffers of the state of California, its replacement is an exact replica with three pieces of information changed - my name, the birth mother's name, and the birth father's name. It is completely indistinguishable from any other birth certificate issued by that state. The same holds true for all birth certificates.