BY LINDA BENTLEY | SEPTEMBER 15, 2010
Ending birthright citizenship to increase illegal population?
WASHINGTON – In light of all the controversy over enforcement of our immigration laws and talk of denying citizenship to the children born to illegal aliens, the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) claims doing so would “set in motion the creation of a self-perpetuating class of unauthorized immigrants who would be excluded from social membership for generations.”
The report recently released by MPI, which studies the movement of people worldwide, says if the U.S. were to end birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens, it “would in fact significantly increase the size of the unauthorized immigrant population.”
The analysis presented in the report reveals if the Birthright Citizenship Act were adopted, “the population of unauthorized immigrants would rise from 11 million today to 16 million in 2050.
It’s not until page 7 of the report that it states, “It is important to understand that our projections rest on the assumption that unauthorized immigrants will continue to behave as they do now: they and their descendents will continue to have children and die at the same rates as they do today … By making this assumption, we ensure that the projected changes in the unauthorized population are entirely attributable to simulated changes in the citizenship rules rather than growth or decline in immigration.”
In other words, it assumes enforcing our laws and removing incentives will have no effect on the behavior of the unauthorized population.
