To all who answered this question - Who started the rumor about the babies of immigrants, both legal?

and illegal - were legally and automatically American citizens when born in America? Links for explanation of question

http://idexer.com/
http://federalistblog.us/2005/12/birthri...

Latter link in part - Alien Birthright Citizenship: A Fable That Lives Through Ignorance.

During the reconstruction period following the civil war the view on citizenship was that only children born to American parents owing allegiance to no other foreign power could be declared an American Citizen upon birth on U.S. soil. This is exactly the language of the civil rights bill of 1866: "All persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States."

Read the entirety of the argument to the 14th Amendment, and how it was actually written and stated - then tell me if you still think it is a fact or a rumor.

As for those of you who call me a bigot - educating you is not bigotry.

If you do the below web searches you will find your answers! You might also try Lou Dobbs Broken borders CNN, Foxnews, ABC, NBC, and CBS. They started it!

Of two facts I am certain: it was not me nor are you my appointed source of education on American government.

Well, obviously a child of a legal immigrant is....that's what legality means. Immigrant status isn't genetic, staying within the family for generations. Once you're legal, your descendants are too, otherwise none of us would be American citizens by logical extension. As for illegals: "and not subject to any foreign power"--as they're not within the borders ruled by that foreign power, they're not subject to it. Why do you think we have to work out extradition when criminals flee to another country? Once you're not on a nation's soil, you are not in their jurisdiction, and the only way you can be subject to their power is if you are forcibly returned by the law enforcement/government of the nation you're in. A child born in the US, even to illegal immigrants meets the qualifications A)born in the US and B)not subject to foreign power as they are here, and upon becoming citizens certainly will not be subject.

Besides, whether or not that was the original intent, that's the way it is currently interpreted by our government, so the founder's opinions don't really matter that much. You'll find that to be the case in most legal questions. Current interpretation goes, original interpretation: interesting, informative, outdated and irrelevant.

As for the bigotry comment? You're right. Educating us does not make you a bigot. Once you find something to educate us on, I will refrain from calling you one. I read the argument. The author talks very nicely, and seems to make sense, but if you read with any depth, you will see the logic goes in circles, contradicts itself, and has no particular depth of knowledge behind it.

Again, you can protest 'til you're blue in the face, but as long as people ARE recognized as US citizens, than there's really no contradicting that, no matter what you can cite. It's not just a myth that people are recognized in this way-they are. It may be a myth that that was the intention, but if it's happening, than you can't tear that down with even impeccable logic.

I did not answer the question but I would like to say that what you just wrote is a fact. I have a lot of relatives born in the United States (not of American parents) and they were declared American Citizens by birth.

I know back in the 70s that if your child was born on US soil, then it made it easier for the entire family to come to the US legally. The immigration process became a lot easier. I grew up in California and remember a number of families in the neighborhood who came to the US using this method.

I also know a man that was born in the US while his mother was on vacation here from another country. When Hitler started killing people, this man's mother sent him back to the US and they accepted him as a US citizen. Maybe it was because he was a young man in danger of being killed by the Nazis.

Fact or Rumor? I don't know about what you showed as a fact. I just know what I have seen with my own eyes.