Birther Insults

"I still don't know if he (Barack Obama) was born in America. I've moved on to other things." -- Donald J. Trump, Republican candidate for President.

Children of Americans are American citizens no matter where they are born.

    To claim that those not born in America are not fully American citizens is an insult to American military personnel serving in other countries. 
   It also shows a deliberate ignoring of law and fact in a blatant attempt to score points with certain segments of the voting public who will believe anything a celebrity says, whether true or not.
   Moreover, top news reporters such as Chuck Todd of NBC should know better than to keep bringing up the birther question, since it has been a non-issue from Day One. It was only employed by Trump and others of the Radical Right to attack the Democratic candidate, insisting that Obama was not born in America and therefore was not a citizen and was ineligible to become President. It has not been used against Republican candidates who were born in other countries.
   Fact: The Constitution stipulates that a candidate for President be a natural-born citizen. It does not require that the candidate be native-born.
   Fact: A child of an American citizen is an American citizen, no matter where the birth takes place.
   Fact: Sen. Ted Cruz, currently a Republican candidate for the presidency, was born in Canada. His father was from Cuba, but his mother was American, so he acquired citizenship through her.
   Fact: Sen. John McCain, a Republican candidate for the presidency in 2008, was born in Panama, at a U.S. military base. His father, a U.S. naval officer, and his mother were both American citizens.
   Fact: George Romney, father of Mitt Romney, and also a Republican candidate for President, was born in Mexico, the son of Mormon missionaries, and both American citizens.
   But the birthplaces of those three seems not to matter, since they are Republicans.
   Fact: Barack Obama's mother was from Kansas, so he is an American citizen through her, regardless of where he was born or where his father was from.
   Fact: Obama's birthplace and citizenship had to be first proven when he acquired a driver's license, second when registered to vote, third when he entered college, and finally when he applied for a marriage license. To claim that the birth certificate issued in Hawaii was likely a forgery is to insult all the government officials who processed all those applications going back some 40 years.
   Truth, however, has never seemed to be an obstacle for the current leading candidate for the Republican nomination. Nearly every question brings variations on this reply: "Trust me, I know what I'm doing and I know how to get things done. I'll give you details of my plans and policies when I think it's time for you to know."
   When will that time be? That question brings only yet another variation on the answer, if not an insult to the questioner.
   Final note: Those born in America are American citizens, regardless of their parents' citizenship status. To call for the deportation of these families, as Trump did over the weekend in an interview with Chuck Todd of NBC, shows not only insensitivity to family values, but an ignorance of the law. Children born in America are American citizens, as a matter of Constitutional law, and cannot be deported. 
   (Exception: Children of those in the diplomatic corps, though born in America, remain citizens of the home country.)