Oppose Lawmakers’ Efforts to Deny 14th Amendment Citizenship Rights

WHEREAS, The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the nation’s oldest and largest Latino organization, founded in Corpus Christi, Texas on February 17, 1929; and

WHEREAS, throughout its history LULAC has committed itself to the principles that Latinos have equal access to the opportunities in employment, education, housing, and heath care; and

WHEREAS, it has been a long held policy and principle of our nation, enshrined in our Constitution, that if you are born in the U.S., you are a U.S. citizen; and

WHEREAS, there is a movement in the U.S. to reinterpret the U.S. Constitution so as to eliminate birthright citizenship, despite the clear text of the 14th Amendment and long-settled U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence interpreting it as guaranteeing this right; and

WHEREAS, this assault on the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship attacks our fundamental understanding of who is an American; and

WHEREAS, eliminating birthright citizenship would undermine our commitment to equality under law by creating a two-tiered society in our country, in which some babies that are born in the U.S. will have fundamental rights and other babies will not; and

WHEREAS, eliminating birthright citizenship is an impractical proposition and would impose significant burdens on Americans, both practically and financially, as all parents would need to prove citizenship for their children, and the U.S. government would have to assess citizenship for every child born in the U.S.; and

WHEREAS, such a two-tiered system of birth categories would add a tremendous financial and administrative burden to the government; and

WHEREAS, legislative proposals to eliminate birthright citizenship are mean spirited and highly divisive. These efforts foster fear and distrust, and will have a devastating effect in our communities; and

WHEREAS, we as a the Latino community in Arizona, understand that when a society begins to demonize a group as less deserving of rights, discrimination, exploitation, and worse follows; and that sitting silent in the face of efforts to eliminate birthright citizenship conflicts with LULAC's long tradition of fighting discrimination, bias, prejudice, bigotry and hate; and

WHEREAS, the Latino Community supports comprehensive immigration reform and proposals to eliminate birthright citizenship are a distraction that moves the country away from fixing the real problems with our broken immigration system; and

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, the Latino Community opposes state and federal efforts to amend or interpret the Fourteenth Amendment to eliminate the right to birthright citizenship.

Approved this 1st day of July 2011.

Margaret Moran
LULAC National President