This is an excerpt from an article featured at The Shorhorn .

One week ago, President Donald Trump made this statement to Axios reporter Jonathan Swan: “We’re the only country in the world where a person comes in, has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years with all of those benefits. It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. And it has to end.”

Many have used this announcement to label him a racist, calling it another way for him to marginalize immigrants. Now, whether you agree with that sentiment or not is not the issue at hand. It’s whether birthright citizenship was ever a good form of policy.

First, we should understand that birthright citizenship for people who entered the U.S. illegally was never the intention of the 14th Amendment. The purpose of this amendment was to fulfill those aspects which the 13th did not, specifically granting former slaves citizenship and the privileges that come with that.

Those of us born in the U.S. have those same privileges and then some. That is to say, being an American citizen is one of the greatest privileges in the world.

Millions of individuals outside our borders only dream of coming to our country, much less of becoming citizens. But for those who are born here, they have access to opportunities not found anywhere else.

American citizenship is set apart in that it allows for protection under our laws, the guarantee of unalienable rights, the right to vote and participate in our democracy, the right to petition family members for permanent residence, and the ability to attain assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Supplemental Security Income, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and federal student aid, just to name a few.

Read the rest here.