Originally posted by: chef
They have to be BORN in the US to be citizens.
"It’s important for parents of children born in the United States to make sure they obtain an official birth certificate."
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The opening sentence of Section One of the 14th Amendment defined U.S. citizenship: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
The parents on the other hand unless they have gotten citizenship, can be deported.
The Dreamers are US citizens in all but name. They've lived the vast majority of their lives here; they speak, think, and act like native-born Americans. To toss them out of the country to satisfy some nativist RepubliQ nonsense would be stupid, unfair, and cruel.
However, you didn't read what PJ said very carefully. While crafting your little lesson on naturalized citizenship, you failed to notice that PJ said that those who were born here to illegal immigrants are citizens, while those who came here as children are not. So I think PJ understands, and we all understand, that as you put it, "they have to be BORN in the US to be citizens" (is that different from being plain old born)?
You're also incorrect, though, when you say that they "have to be" born in the US to be citizens. Citizenship can be granted to those who apply and qualify. The argument made by those who support the Dreamers is that by growing up and living here, they've essentially met the fundamental requirement: assimilation into American society.
I really don't see why conservative panties get twisted into such knots over this issue. Except, perhaps, that most of the Dreamers aren't White, which makes them subhuman in the eyes of the RepubliQ.