Halt 'automatic citizenship'

I do not wish to disclose my political affiliation, but this time I do agree with Republicans who are suggesting that the 14th Amendment to our constitution be further amended to repeal the absolute right to citizenship for anyone born in the U.S., regardless of the circumstances of such birth. The 14th Amendment now provides that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens of the United States.

The proposed amendment to the 14th Amendment would deal with the situation where citizens of other countries enter the U.S. illegally, give birth to a child here, leave the U.S. and go back home - and that child has automatically become a U.S. citizen for the rest of its life.

This is "automatic citizenship" for the child who just happens to be born in the U.S. to parents illegally here, and certainly that was not in the contemplation of those who drafted the 14th Amendment.

There is only one solution to this problem. We must amend the 14th Amendment to read, "All persons born in the United States to parents lawfully in the United States at the time of the person's birth, or naturalized in the United States, are citizens of the United States."

Without such an amendment, we will continue to have the problem of "automatic citizenship" for those children born to parents who are unlawfully in this country at the time of the child's birth, and we should correct this problem now.

Theodore M. Utchen

Wheaton