BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP - YES OR NO?

Should you be entitled to US citizenship just because you are born on US soil? In my opinion, no. One should gain US citizenship by naturalization or blood only - meaning if one of your parents is a natural born citizen, then you are a citizen. No citizenship for the children of legal residents and certainly not illegal immigrants. I would also propose doing away with dual citizenship. You are either a citizen of the United States or you are not, your loyalty cannot be divided. Choose one country and one only.

Rep. Nathan Deal (R-Ga.) wants to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to limit automatic citizenship at birth to children of U.S. citizens and lawful residents.

Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) introduced a constitutional amendment that also would limit birthright citizenship. Such an amendment would require ratification by three-fourths of the states.

A proposal by Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), who heads a 90-member caucus pushing to tighten immigration laws, would deny citizenship to U.S.-born children of temporary immigrant workers.

I support all of these proposals. Doing away with birthright citizenship would end one of the greatest draws for the illegal immigrants.

Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a national group that lobbies to reduce illegal immigration, said the lure of U.S. citizenship for children is a "huge incentive" for people to come to the United States illegally because it opens the door to many social benefits.

Also, once they reach 21, the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants can petition for their parents' residency. Family reunification often is cited as a reason for amnesty proposals.

There were 6.3 million illegal immigrant families in the United States in 2004, according to a study released in June by the Pew Hispanic Center. Most of them — 59 percent — do not have children, the study said.

But nearly one-third of families headed by illegal immigrants do have children who are U.S. citizens, the study said.

As Tammy Bruce eloquently puts it: "American citizenship is precious and valuable, not something to give away like peanuts on an airplane."