Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

Immigration into the U.S. doesn't have to be legally sanctioned, and often isn't. Sneaking over the border in the desert at night, or overstaying a visa may be the most publicized methods, but loopholes in the immigration law also provide entry to sophisticated scofflaws, the most famous being the misunderstood idea that if you are born in the U.S., you are automatically a citizen. Citizenship by birth, called jus soli, which means “right of the soil,” or Birthright citizenship, is a product of the 14^th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which states, "All persons born in the United States are citizens of the United States.” However, an 1898 Supreme Court decision added the requirement that the mother must have permanent domicile in the U.S. This residency requirement is not widely known, and seems to be ignored.

There's also the related concept of “maternity tourism,” a phenomenon where wealthy Asian women come to the U.S. to give birth to a child so that it would automatically gain U.S. citizenship, eventually providing the child's family a way to get into the U.S. themselves through another loophole, the process of “chain migration,” where related family members can enter the U.S. sponsored by an already admitted family member. It's the most common form of immigration, used in over 60% of the cases, amounting to over three-quarters of a million immigrants a year. Without enforcement of the residency requirement for mothers, and restriction on chain migration; border enforcement, wall or no wall, is little more than showmanship.