‘Subject to the jurisdiction thereof’ seems pretty clear to me.
When people discuss our nation’s immigration policies, what becomes clear is that the system is broken, and tangible solutions are needed. Take birthright citizenship, for example. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants we admit each year, our country must also prepare for the economic, educational, health care and infrastructure responsibilities and consequences of illegal immigrants who cross the border and then have a child in the USA.
The status quo understanding of the 14th Amendment allows for a child born of illegal immigrants on U.S. soil — via birthright citizenship — to be granted full citizenship rights and access to all public and social services our society provides. That’s a lot of services.
Recently, there have been raids of “maternity hotels,” where foreign women paid exorbitant amounts of money to visit the USA in the final few months of pregnancy in order to abuse our government’s misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment. While it seems unbelievable, hundreds of thousands of babies each year are the offspring of illegal immigrants.
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