Notes

Stock makes several arguments in defense of birthright citizenship that I found nearly impossible to argue with. First, his argument that ridding of birthright citizenship will reduce the amount of illegal immigrants in America. In fact, this would increase the number of illegal immigrants in the states. Though it may seem logical that less immigrants would migrate here without the opportunity to allow their children a better future, there is no evidence to support that claim to be true. On the contrary is would actually make every baby born here an illegal immigrant instead of a Us citizen, therefore making the problem worse than it was previously. Immigrants come to the US for opportunity regardless of birthright laws. It is also true that our denouncement of birthright citizenship would add to the global total of people who are stateless. Arguments such as Wilkinsons's don't add up when it comes to protecting American citizens OR the citizens of the world especially considering that ending birthright citizenship would make it harder for legally born citizens to access their legal documentation and could possibly result in an unintended consequence of deporting more legal citizens than we already do.