Today, the United States recognizes children of foreigners and non-citizens who are born in this country as U.S. citizens.  President Trump believes that if the parents are foreign-born or non-citizens, and they happen to give birth to a child in the United States, that child does not automatically become a citizen of the United States and therefore is not entitled to all the benefits a U.S. citizen has earned and is eligible for.  Many support and many are in opposition to the president’s view.

At the same time, we have many people working hard to become citizens through naturalization.  Naturalization is the process of voluntarily becoming a United States citizen. 

In the first case, U.S. citizenship is a luck of the draw.  Your mother happens to be in the U.S. while she’s pregnant and gives birth.  You happen to be born in the U.S.  Congratulations: You’re a citizen with full citizen benefits.

In the second case, you work hard over several years, study about our country and its history, and practice and take tests you’re required to pass to earn your citizenship.

Many, many countries have already weighed in on the birthright subject.  I would like to share one very recent story.

Good friends of ours — we’ll refer to them as Stephen and Megan — both U.S. Citizens, love to travel in Europe and the U.K.  They were especially excited to tell us about their recent river cruise.

They were determined to see Amsterdam — to walk among the historical merchant buildings lining the canals, to shop the Nine Streets, the Negev Straatjes, for as long as Megan could hold up.  Megan, you see, is 7 months pregnant, and although she is a real trooper with a lot of energy, the back-to-back traveling has begun to wear her down.

Then it happened.  One night, while enjoying dinner along the Keizergracht Canal, Megan went into early labor.  

The Dutch authorities were very nice, transporting Megan and Stephen to the hospital, where, after a very short wait, Megan delivered a beautiful little girl she named Emma in honor of the nurse who took care of her.

Once the oohs and ahs of the hospital baby-gazers subsided, and Stephen completed his “I told you it was too late to take her traveling” lecture by Megan’s mom, all was well, and there was a lot of happiness for the new life brought into the world.

Shortly afterward, Stephen found out that the rules in Amsterdam are very different from the United States.

Regarding birthright citizenship: Whereas American TV networks are digging up and parading their constitutional scholars to provide their unique and personal interpretations of the 14th Amendment, in the Netherlands, it’s cut and dry: There is no birthright citizenship.  In the Netherlands, a child born to tourists in Amsterdam are not automatically considered Dutch simply because of their birth location.  Dutch nationality is primarily determined by the nationality of the parents at the time of the child’s birth.  If one or both parents are Dutch citizens, the child will automatically acquire Dutch nationality at birth.

Every child born in the Netherlands must be registered within three days with the municipality where the birth occurred.  After registering, the parents will receive a birth certificate.

If the parents are not Dutch citizens, as in the case of Stephen and Megan, their child Emma will not automatically become a Dutch citizen because she was born in the Netherlands.  Nor will Emma receive the medical benefits that Dutch citizens receive.

One more thing: Stephen and Megan were responsible for all the medical costs of childbirth and the hospital stay.

In researching other countries where foreigners, visitors, or tourists give birth in another country, all seem to follow the Amsterdam example.  The child who is born is not automatically granted citizenship and citizenship benefits of the country he is born in.

Now, why on Earth would the United States be the only country on the planet to encourage foreigners and non-citizens to come to this country to give birth, receive immediate citizenship, and receive medical and other benefits that in many cases are much better benefits than those received by U.S. citizens who have paid into the system their entire lives? 

Somehow, birthright citizenship doesn’t seem quite fair to all those people who have been waiting and working and studying our country for years in hopes of becoming a U.S. citizen.  I know my grandmother was extremely proud when she officially became one.

Image via Pexels.