By Dennis Hicks, Hamilton
Designating “Anchor babies” is both illegal and immoral.
During the presidential election in 2016, several silly entertainers threatened to move their citizenship to Canada if Donald Trump was elected.
In fact, they could choose to voluntarily change their citizenship to Canada, provided they were at least 18 years of age – the same age limitation as for naturalized American citizenship. The minimum age restrictions for citizenship are because citizenship is a voluntary choice that is a carefully considered adult decision that an immature person would be incapable of making.
In most nations, until a child reaches the age of legally informed consent, until he has matured and is intellectually capable of understanding all the consequences of such a decision, the child is considered to be the same nationality as his parents. No person or government is authorized to make a different choice for the child — including his parents. It is the child’s natural right to make the citizenship choice for himself when he reaches the age of legally informed consent.
How do we know, for example, that an infant born to illegal aliens on American soil would choose American citizenship if he was of age? Perhaps he would discover that Donald Trump is president and may prefer to live under the legal jurisdiction of Canada or Cuba.
Suppose a 3-year-old girl, born to American citizen parents in Winnett, Montana, expressed her desire to become a naturalized citizen of Borneo. Should her parents, or Montana, or our federal government, initiate the transfer of her citizenship to Borneo? Of course, such a thing is absurd. When the child reached the age of legally informed consent, she would likely sue whoever is responsible for violating her natural right to voluntarily choose her citizenship.
It would be even more absurd if her parents were citizens of Honduras and were living illegally in Winnett. Her parents have no authority to place the child under the legal jurisdiction of Borneo or the United States of America; neither does Congress. She would legally remain a citizen of Honduras until, at the age of informed consent, she voluntarily chose otherwise.
To assign U.S. citizenship to a child born to non-citizen parents on American soil is not compassion, it’s ignorance and a legal and moral violation of the child’s natural right to voluntarily and intelligently choose his citizenship when he is of age.