Birthright Limits Would Harm Children, Critics Say

Arizona Republic reported that: In many ways, Norma Jimenez is a typical teenager in America. She tries to never miss an episode of "Grey's Anatomy," she loves spending weekends in front of the TV and she is partial to chicken Caesar salads/ Jimenez, 19, is also a top student. She graduated last year from Carl Hayden High School with a 3.7 GPA and a desire to become a registered nurse. But because she was brought to the U.S. illegally from Mexico when she was 1, she doesn't have a Social Security number, meaning she can't get financial aid for college or legally work in the U.S. "I'm very frustrated," Jimenez said. "At the end, you just see yourself as trapped." Hundreds of thousands of other children would find themselves in that same sort of economic and social limbo should efforts succeed to restrict birthright citizenship. If the interpretation of the 14th Amendment were changed, in the future, the 300,000 to 400,000 children of illegal immigrants born every year in the United States - as Jimenez's brother and sister were - would not be citizens of this country.