FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 5, 2011
Contact:
Paco Fabián
(202) 785-1670
Washington, DC—NCLR (National Council of La Raza), the largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, today called recent proposals to repeal the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment—which confers citizenship on all persons born on U.S. soil—“inflammatory, impractical, and immoral.”
“These thoughtless and unnecessary proposals take our country in the wrong direction, away from inclusion and our other core American values,” stated Janet Murguía, NCLR President and CEO. “The citizenship clause is a bedrock principle of civil rights and part of what makes us all Americans. Never in our nation’s history have we amended the Constitution to take away someone’s rights and we should not do so now.”
“These proposals are inflammatory. Those seeking to decimate the 14th Amendment know that their attempts are constitutionally dubious at best, but they are definitely irresponsible and divisive, guaranteed to make many of our fellow Americans suspect in their own land.
“They are impractical. These approaches would throw hospitals, families, and society into chaos, requiring the government to come into every delivery room to determine the paternity of the child and the status of his or her parents.
“And these proposals are immoral. They would undermine our nation’s commitment to equality under the law, taking us down a slippery slope where the law permits distinctions based on ancestry, race, ethnicity, gender, and other characteristics.
“Proponents of this idea would have you believe that their proposals are simple, uncomplicated, and an easy fix to a problem. But there is nothing simple about taking away a right that millions of Americans fought and died for in the Civil War. There is nothing uncomplicated about an assault on our Constitution. And this is no solution,” concluded Murguía.
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