Five million children are living in the U.S. today. Children of every race, every ethnicity, every religion, every kind of identification. But of the five million children in the U.S., only about 4.1 million have U.S. citizenship at birth. 100,000 holding a green card, while the remaining 900,000 are themselves unauthorized. But they all are brought into the world the same. They go to the same schools, side by side, learning the same curriculum. They all have the same rights, no matter where their parents were born or where they lived. This is because of the 14th Amendment: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside (Navarrette, par.3). It was ratified in 1868 to grant citizenship to former slaves who had been freed after the Civil War. However, currently, under President Trumps term, there has bee
n a lot of controversy on whether this amendment should be changed to deny automatic citizenship to the children of illegal aliens. The wording of the amendment could be interpreted in various ways and some Republican critics say that its an irresistible lure to illegal immigrants and needs to be revised (Khan, par.2). This is because of the rising number of illegal aliens in the United States, especially since these illegal immigrants are settling down in the U.S. and starting families. But the amendment shouldnt be changed, nor should there be another law passed to allow it, because it is a part of our Constitution which acts as the supreme law of the land. As well as, it is unethical to deny basic human rights to all, especially those born on American soil. Doing so would be a step in the wrong direction of America being accepting and open-minded and welcoming as has been, hence being called the land of the free.