Forum Post: OccupyTheConstitution Democracy Qualification of Voters Citizenship

One of the big questions of our time is immigration. The Constitution states, “ALL PERSONS BORN or NATURALIZED in the United States... are citizens of the United States...” First, it’s important to state that this provision wasn’t part of the initial Constitution. It wasn't added until Amendment 14 in 1868. Up until that time, the country was under direct control of a small group of wealthy people. It took a Civil War and the death of over 600,000 Americans to obtain civil liberties for average citizens! SO, given the old mantra, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…" this issue isn’t as simple as it seems.

Let's start right from the basics. Why should BIRTH in the U.S. automatically be sufficient for citizenship? As with many of the concepts in the Constitution, this issue was addressed in a superficial manner. Because of that it is causing a lot of problems today. Why wasn’t the principle stated: 'All human beings BORN TO CITIZENS of the U.S., wherever that birth may occur, or naturalized by a U.S. court ... are citizens of the U.S.' Or how about: 'All human beings born to female citizens of the U.S., wherever that birth may occur, or CONCEIVED by a male citizen of the U.S. or naturalized... are citizens... ' Sure, we didn’t have the DNA technology during WWII to verify this (hey, call it luck), but now we do.

And notice the change of words from “persons” to “human beings”. Even though this seems more precise, it may again be too simple a phrase. Remember, women weren’t considered “persons” until the 19th Amendment in 1920 allowed them to vote. When does a lump of tissue become a "human being"?

So, what should be the requirement goals for U.S. citizenship? What should be the requirement goals to take U.S. citizenship away from a person?

(This post is part of a collection of posts aimed at launching a new process called the National Opinion Collection System (NOCS). For more information on the process, see http://occupywallst.org/forum/occupytheconstitution-introduction/ )