Citizenship for Children of Immigrants

Opinions vary regarding laws that focus on the rights for children of legal immigration. Children of illegal immigrations tend to be more publicly accepted than their parents or older family members, particularly when these children have lived in the United States since a young age. Children of parents who are illegal immigrants are not usually considered to be criminals in the eyes of the public; the general consensus stands that they never had a choice but to move with their families when they were young. For many, the United States is all they know.

Children born to parents considered to be illegal immigrants on United States soil fall into a different category. Children who are born in America are automatically made citizens, regardless of their parents' status of citizenship. Often, many illegal immigrants make a conscious decision to illegally immigrate in order to provide a better life for their future children. As a result, these children of immigration are endowed with the same rights and privileges as any individual born in the United States.

Currently, an estimated 300,000 children are born in the United States every year to parents considered to be illegal immigrants--many of whom come in order tor provide their children with better health care, education, and benefits. Children of immigration are given specific advantages, but since the respective immigration status of their parents does not change, they still face a future of uncertainty and fear.

There is also an extraneous benefit that their parents receive as a result of the legality of citizenship of their children. Immigrants, both legal and illegal, can be sponsored for citizenship by their children once the children turn 21.

As per usual, Americans are split about this implication of the issues surrounding this de facto citizenship. Some feel that it is necessary to provide a higher quality of health care to these children, as well as a better education than what they would receive had their parents given birth them in their original country of origin.

Major segments of the population disagree with this assertion as they argue that the children of immigration are endowed with rights they simply do not deserve; they have the right to seek employment, attend college, and receive benefits without ever having to obtain visas Although the central idea of granting rights to children of immigration is often challenged, the 14th Amendment makes this a requirement.

Those who oppose the law claim that it is unfair to provide a child who is born in the United States legal citizenship due to their parents' illegal immigration. Furthermore, adversaries argue against this determination because of an alleged networking effect of illegal immigration that tends to manifest itself in the form of family members of illegal immigrants wishing to join their familial counterparts in illegaly residing in the United States.