Not all born here are born citizens

One of every 12 babies born in the United States has at least one parent who is in the country illegally, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. The Washington Post and others have reported on widespread "birthright tourism," in which pregnant tourists come to the United States to give birth.

The current interpretation of the 14th Amendment allows all such children, whether born to illegal aliens or temporary tourists, automatic U.S. citizenship. Elected officials have begun to question whether that interpretation is correct and whether it could be changed.

What the 14th Amendment says is: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States. ..." The 14th Amendment does not say - or mean - that everyone born here is a citizen.

There are, in fact, many examples of people born in the United States who are not automatically citizens under the 14th Amendment. In every such case, the denial of birthright citizenship is based on the parents' status.

For example, even if they're born in U.S. hospitals, the children of foreign diplomats are not considered citizens of the United States because they are not "subject to the jurisdiction thereof."

Children born on U.S. soil to alien enemies during a hostile occupation are not citizens for the same reason. For example, the Japanese military occupied two of Alaska's Aleutian Islands during World War II. A Japanese child born there at the time would not have been a U.S. citizen.

Children born in the United States to Russian spies recently returned to Russia with their parents in a prisoner exchange. Are those children entitled to return to the United States as citizens after graduating from Russian spy school? Or should they, too, be regarded as having been born to alien enemies in hostile occupation?

For many years after the adoption of the 14th Amendment, children born to sovereign American Indian tribes were not considered U.S. citizens because of their allegiance to the tribes. That exception was eventually overturned by federal legislation - which suggests that Congress has a role in the interpretation and application of the 14th Amendment.