Birthright Citizenship Ban Could Hamper U.S. Military Recruiting

Arizona Republic (Arizona Central): Hundreds of thousands of children born to illegal immigrants every year would no longer be eligible to join the military if efforts to restrict birthright citizenship are successful. That has some immigration experts concerned that ending birthright citizenship could exacerbate chronic shortages of U.S. troops and hamper national security in the future. "What happens is, if you take all these people out of the (recruiting) pool, it's going to have a huge impact on the military," said Margaret Stock, a retired Army Reserves lieutenant colonel and immigration attorney in Anchorage, Alaska. She specializes in military cases and has testified before Congress on immigration issues related to the military. About 350,000 children born in the U.S. in 2009 had at least one undocumented parent, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group in Washington, D.C. About 8 percent of all children born in the U.S. from March 2009 to March 2010 had undocumented parents, according to the center.