Thank you for contacting me in opposition to birthright citizenship. I appreciate hearing from you. As you know, our country and state face an overwhelming illegal immigration situation. I agree with the many experts who believe that the immigration issues facing our nation require addressing aspects of both illegal and legal immigration. As you may know, birthright citizenship is a feature of our federal legal system where any child born in our country automatically becomes a U.S. citizen regardless of whether the parents were legally in our country or not.
This is a provision of the provisions of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Currently, there are two proposed bills that would prevent the children of illegal aliens from becoming citizens automatically. As you know, it is very difficult to pass an amendment to the Constitution. This requires a two-thirds vote of the Congress, or 290 votes in the House and 67 votes in the Senate. In addition, there must be action on the amendment in 37 state legislatures. It is unlikely that either the House or the Senate will be able to consider these proposals this year with such a short period of time remaining in the legislative calendar.
For additional information on California State immigration statistics please contact Governor Schwarzenegger's office by phone at 916-445-2841 or by mail at:Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger State Capitol Building Sacramento, CA 95814. I value you taking the time to share with me your views on this matter. Rest assured I remain committed to working with my colleagues on immigration reform and legislation that will develop solutions for all of our national immigration problems. Again, thank you for sharing your views with me. For your convenience, you can sign up to receive regular email updates from me on issues important to the 45th District at http://www.house.gov/bono.
Please continue to contact me regarding other issues of mutual concern.
Sincerely,
M
MARY BONO MACK
Member of Congress
MBM/aw
Sincerely,
MARY BONOMember of Congress ***PLEASE NOTE - DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL DIRECTLY, AS IT WAS SENT FROM AN UNATTENDED MAIL BOX. IF YOU HAVE ADDITIONAL COMMENTS, PLEASE ACCESS MY WEB SITE AT http://www.bono.house.gov. THANK YOU.
