By: Sen. John F. Kerry
August 12, 2010 04:28 AM EDT
It was stunning to see a senior senator declare, “I’m not sure exactly what the drafters of the 14th Amendment had in mind, but I doubt it was that somebody could fly in from Brazil and have a child and fly back home with that child, and that child is forever an American citizen.”
Stunning, first, because in a year when we lost Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), guardian of the Senate’s history and defender of the Constitution, some senators need reminding that the 14th Amendment was born of a determination to end forever any question, any effort to enshrine in our laws a kind of second-class citizenship.
The amendment’s authors purposely chose an objective standard of citizenship, one not subject to politics: birth.
But the senator’s statement is also stunning for what it says about the political theater that today too often substitutes for meaningful debate and dialogue in what the Framers intended to be the “world’s greatest deliberative body.”
There is no epidemic of people “flying in” just to have their children born as U.S. citizens — and every senator knows it. Just as they know it takes more than two decades for a child born in America to sponsor anyone for immigration — which means no back door for undocumented parents to become citizens on the sly.
Why, then, has repeal of the 14th Amendment become the subject of the day, consuming hour upon hour of cable news coverage at the expense of the real issue that Americans want addressed thoughtfully and rationally — fixing our broken immigration system?
Make no mistake — the lack of consensus on immigration reform frustrates us all, especially because it has unleashed some of the most divisive forces in America in decades. But that means it is time to renew the push for comprehensive immigration reform, not resort to a contrived conflict and fake solutions — with the short-term goal of winning a few more votes for a political party.
No. Senators should lead, not feed further division and romanticize partisan fighting as a virtue. If we fail to lead, we may never rise to the serious, long-term, structural challenges we face, which require deliberation, candor, thoughtful proposals and sustainable compromise.
The idea of repealing the 14th Amendment is just the latest example of how small our politics has become. This is so bad as to be laughable, were its implications not so grave. In America, we do not practice or believe in communal punishment. There are about 4 million kids legally in the United States but born to undocumented parents.
To deny them citizenship would create a generation of stateless children. We cannot force their parents’ countries to embrace them, nor should we reject them. They have done nothing wrong. They are born innocent.
If we repeal the amendment, how would we enforce our new citizenship standard? Would we station federal immigration agents in delivery rooms? Will every birth trigger an immigration investigation into the parents’ status? Do we want to amend the U.S. Constitution, the greatest document of liberty and freedom, so we can start deporting newborns?
In 2007, on the Senate floor, former Republican Sen. Pete Domenici recounted his mother's arrest by immigration agents, after they unwittingly learned she was an undocumented immigrant. Should he have been deported?
There are others, including members of our military, now serving in Afghanistan, who were born to immigrants here illegally. They are no less patriotic than their brothers and sisters in arms born to American parents.
America has overcome the demonization of immigrants before — even when the most demagogic statements came from government itself. During the 2007 immigration debate, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) cited the government’s 1910 Dillingham Report. He talked about how the report claimed immigrants were ruining America.
He listed the complaints: “They live among themselves. They have disease. They won't learn our language. They commit crimes. They are a burden on society, and we need to do something about it.”
Then he went on to say, “The people they were talking about became the "greatest generation.''
He was right then. And we would all do well to remember again that people come to America to work, not to have babies.
Throughout our history, each amendment to the Constitution has moved us closer to a more perfect union — toward greater freedom and inclusion. From the establishment of the Bill of Rights, to the protection of freed slaves and their children, to women’s right to vote, our journey has been forward — not back.
In the 21st century, we must strengthen our commitment to the principle that all people are created equal and not allow factionalism or fear to trump our commitment to liberty.
Moreover, effectively managing immigration demands more than political theater. We must reestablish a system governed by the rule of law.
But we also need to recognize that we have lived with a broken system for so long that the millions here today have become part of us. They need to get right with the law — by paying taxes and moving to the back of the line for citizenship. But we also need to make sure employers are no longer hiring and exploiting undocumented workers. They must check every hire, verifying with the government that the employee is here legally. Those who fail to do so should be punished.
The sad reality is that, behind closed doors, you won’t find a senator who really believes that any constitutional change is coming to end birthright citizenship.
Even sadder is the fact that behind those same closed doors — and in the public dialogue — too little is being done about what we all know is so desperately needed: a bipartisan, good-faith effort to reform a broken immigration system and improve border security, protect U.S. jobs and deal fairly with those now in the country illegally.
We can and should do all of this in good faith — and without amending our Constitution.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and serves on the Finance Committee.
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