14th Amendment Defended, Debated

They gathered at the This Is The Place Monument Friday, some folks who don't want to see the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment done away with.

"It's so sad to think that we now will be creating a second class . . . of citizens," Luz Robles, a state senator, was quoted as saying in the Salt Lake Tribune.

The 14th Amendment grants citizenship to all born on American soil, which includes children of illegal immigrants.

The Tribune article also reported the stands of Senator Orrin Hatch, candidate for Senate Mike Lee, and Congressman Jason Chaffetz.

Hatch doesn't see the need to change the Constitution, but he backs legislation to require a parent to be a citizen in order for the child to have citizenship.

The Tribune article said Lee also supports the legislation, and said Chaffetz is co-sponsor to the House bill that would make the change. The Tribune said both Hatch and Chaffetz back a Constitutional Amendment if the proposed legislation does not bring about the change.

My thought? I say it would take an amendment to make the change. Otherwise you are breaking the Constitution. Says the citizenship clause in the 14th Amendment, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside."