The Fallacy of Birthright Citizenship: What Happens when a Pregnant Tourist Becomes an ICE Suspect
By Alycia Anglin
President Trump’s inconsistent immigration policies and measures that attempt to severely curtail immigration have caused thousands of immigrants to live in fear. Some of therm are forced to undergo inhumane treatment, which completely strips them of their identity and sense of hope.
Trump’s immigration policies are wholly inconsistent with previous US presidents. He is effectively bypassing the Constitution. He chooses to alter the rules and laws already outlined in the constitution as he sees fit, especially birthright citizenship, which guarantees that any child born on U.S soil is an American citizen, even those born to undocumented immigrants.
Trump is running the country into the ground by proposing these new policies that create more problems than they solve.
The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states “all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State Wherein they reside”.
Back in August 2019, President Trump reasserted his desire to implement a new immigration policy regarding birthright citizenship. Trump and his administration proposed to deny citizenship to babies born in the United States to parents who are non-citizens, including tourists. His total disregard for the Constitution is absurd.
This attack on birthright citizenship is turning America into a country where a pregnant woman who comes on vacation to visit family suddenly becomes a suspect for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Trump’s plan to eliminate birth right citizenship hit close to home in 2018 when my 35-year-old cousin Shari Morrison left her home in Montego Bay, Jamaica for a vacation stay in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
It was September 25, and Shari was excited and nervous all at the same time. She had anticipated her vacation to Florida for months as she planned to catch up with all of our friends and relatives, and most importantly take care of her sick mother, whom she hadn’t seen in 11 years.
Shari was scheduled to stay two months and return home, which would normally not be any problem at all. But, Shari was six months pregnant and traveling to America for the very first time. Although she had no intention of giving birth here in the United States, that alone would not prevent her from being interrogated upon arrival.
Immediately after landing, an immigration officer asked her many questions about how long she would be staying, her occupation, and her purpose for traveling. He ascertained that she was pregnant and asked her how far along she was.
“Six months, sir,” Shari replied.
The interview process terrified Shari; she was not prepared for this.
“I was so scared that I was shaking, I had absolutely no clue what would happen next,” she said.
Shari saw her life flash before her eyes, she feared that she would be placed on a returning flight back to Jamaica. But to her great surprise, the officer went ahead and stamped Shari’s passport for three months with no further questions, and she was on her way.
Just over a month later on Oct. 30th, Shari began experiencing intermittent contractions during a family dinner and was rushed to the hospital. She was in disbelief as doctors performed an emergency delivery. Shari’s baby girl was born two months premature.
Because of the complications of her brith, Shari’s baby spent two months in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), which resulted in Shari missing her scheduled flight back to Jamaica. There was absolutely no way she would leave her little baby.
By December of 2018, Shari had been in the country for three months. She had no choice but to stay in the United States for the betterment of her daughter’s health. Her status changed from visitor to undocumented immigrant. Shari feared that she would get deported, or even jailed.
One evening, while she was on the way to the hospital, Shari’s worst fears were realized. She was accosted by ICE officers. Her baby was protected, by virture of still being in the NICU, but Shari was detained and taken to an ICE detention center in Fort Lauderdale.
Shari spent three weeks in the detention center and faced an extensive court battle with ICE. She had to show proof that she had entered the country legally, gather statements from the hospital to prove that her baby had been in the NICU since birth, and prove the existence of her initial return ticket to avoid deportation.
Shari was able to gather all of these documents and through a judge’s order was allowed to stay in the United States until her baby was released from the hospital. She and her baby girl left the country in February 2019 and returned back home to Jamaica.
Shari’s baby girl is now a little over a year old. She’s doing very well and Shari has no interest in traveling to the United States.
“I’m traumatized,” she said. “I’m just going to stay in Jamaica for now and live my life. I’m not looking for papers or anything. Trump is a real mad man and I hope he gets impeached sometime soon.”
For a pregnant mother who came in the country legally, gave birth and overstayed a visa due to unusual predicaments and facing a court battle with ICE should have never occurred being that birth right citizenship and “anchor babies” is a myth.
The reality is that in a country that President Trump claims to be so “great,” he is trying his best to develop nationalism to the point where it’s all about America and no place else. He completely disregards the fact that America is a melting pot. We are a nation that was quite literally built by immigrants. If it hadn’t been for them, this country would not be what it is today.
What Trump needs to understand is that not all immigrants are criminals. Many immigrants migrate to America in search of a better life for themselves and for their families.
Immigrants have been coming to the United States since before the origin of this country. In fact, America was never Trump’s or anyone else’s land to begin with.
At the end of the day, I agree that there should be rules and safety measures in place in order to keep Americans safe. However, it is unconscionable that they could be so drastic that a pregnant woman vacationing in the US ends up being placed in ICE custody.
