Where are Your Papers: The Dangers of Eliminating Birthright Citizenship

As we stare down the barrel of four years of a Trump presidency premised on whitening America, it is worth examining immigration reform recommendations, that, though perhaps made in good faith, would further Trump’s fascist, racist aims with no gain to our country.  And which would terrorize nonwhite Americans, citizens, residents, visa holders, in addition to the undocumented.

In an Oct 4 article in American Kahani, Kamana Mathur writes about the immigration crisis. While she is correct that immigration laws are long overdue for overhaul, her suggestion to eliminate birthright citizenship is misguided. It would further the anti-immigrant bigotry and harassment of nonwhite, non-Christian people in America.

Mathur proposes to “end “birthright citizenship” for children of those who entered illegally or those here on tourist visas” as a way to deter people from entering the U.S. illegally to give birth so that their children are U.S. citizens.  This is a disastrous suggestion.

First, how will this be enforced?  Now hospitals will be immigration agents?  Will the birth certificates they issue state the immigration status of a newborn’s parents?  It will not only add to the burden of a maternity unit, it will also lead to racial profiling of parents.  Is it hard to imagine the scenario where white parents get the birth certificate and are allowed to celebrate their baby’s birth, while parents with tinted skin, American or not, are asked to prove their own citizenship before the baby can be granted his/hers?  How many Americans have paperwork on hand to readily prove their citizenship?

Moreover, doubts that lead hospital administrators to deny citizenship, or a birth certificate, can render a child stateless if whatever procedures that are needed to claim rightful American citizenship fall through the cracks.  It has happened to tens of thousands of children adopted from abroad by U.S. parents–procedures to naturalize them after the adoptions were missed by their parents, now as adults they are undocumented with no recourse. Some have been deported to countries they have never known.  Eliminating birthright citizenship opens the door to racial profiling, harassment of nonwhite, accented, or otherwise “suspicious” mothers delivering babies, and will inadvertently create undocumented Americans.  

Additionally, any American can be harassed by local, state or Federal authorities to prove the citizenship of their parents.  Because apparently, birth certificates and passports carried by American citizens can and have been questioned by authorities, leading to detention of Americans–nonwhite Americans, to be specific.

And, to what end?  What does the U.S. gain from eliminating birthright citizenship? Mathur states:

“The possibility of having a U.S. citizen child is one incentive for individuals to enter illegally or to participate in “birth tourism,” a multimillion dollar industry that results in an estimated 33,000 U.S. citizen births annually.  The dangers of having a U.S. citizen who is not raised in the U.S. are obvious.”

It is not at all obvious. The argument that a U.S. citizen raised abroad will become agents of enemy governments is a right wing talking point that has not been demonstrated with a single example.  It is fiction imposing unwarranted fear of the “dangerous foreigner” onto the attempt to declare that only “real Americans” can pass on citizenship to their children.  

With 3 to 4 million babies being born in the U.S. annually, 33,000 is .01% of the babies born in the U.S.  If they are raised abroad, they are more likely to be assets to America than a danger.  At a time when birthrates are declining, and there is fear of an aging population that the working population cannot support, an American who returns to the U.S. in the future is an asset to the economy, in the form of labor, taxes, and support to social security.  And, as previously stated, as of yet, no one has been able to identify an American raised abroad that returned as a security threat.

In embracing the right-wing idea of repealing birthright citizenship, Mathur is inadvertently suggesting a terrifying new regime of racial profiling, harassment, stateless people. This is one step in creating a society where people can be requested to “show their papers”, especially people that some consider not to be “real Americans” by the of skin color, bilingualism, or just observer bias. The suggestion and the consequences violate civil rights, and are to the detriment of America.  

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Angana Shah, a lawyer who has worked in corporate law in Washington, D.C., and in international rule of law promotion worldwide, now works as a lobbyist for social justice organizations in Michigan.