Read the koran, the ahadith and the sunnah: wake up, this is islam, they have been doing this for 1450 years, this is the way to make the infidels bow to islam. Most will convert, the rest will pay the jiziya and live in subjugation. How do you think 57 Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, pagan countries have between 80 to 100% muslim?

By the swords. Check their flags.

Another reason I don't favor a change, is how we're supposed to enforce it. Any couple having a child has to produce birth certificates or a passport when they arrive at a hospital? A Social security card isn't proof of citizenship, my wife had a number when she was both a conditional and permanent resident alien. The same goes for my mother and sister in-laws. They're all citizens today.

What happens if the parents don't have proof? What happens if a birth certificate is issued incorrectly? I know a little about the later, and just how hard it is to get one fixed. When my son Daniel was born in 2003, the registrar at St. Mary's hospital failed to fill the forms out properly. My son's birth certificate was issued with no name on it. It was a headache to get it fixed.

BTW why aren't bloggers gloating over these French riots? What has happened to change their reaction compared to the same events from two years ago? I think we know the answer..........

I think citizenship should be automatic for those born in the United States, providing that the parents are legal residents of the country.

If we'd rationalize our immigration policy with respect to Mexico, I'd think more favorably of this approach than I do now. As it stands our visa allotment for Mexico is so small as to be surreal.

As to the birthright citizenship issue, I'm in between you and John, although perhaps closer to you. I think citizenship should be automatic for those born in the United States, providing that the parents are legal residents of the country. (I might also make an exception for those whose parents are here as agents of a foreign government, although that's not an issue I've studied particularly hard on.)

That's not at the root of the problem here. The problem is one that's critically important for an ethnic state like France: how are those who've been there all their lives but aren't Francais de souche to be considered? Right now they're neither fish nor fowl.

That's why I've emphasized the importance of our birthright citizenship over here, contra the position of our friend, John Burgess. It at least has a chance of giving the descendants of immigrants a stake in the country that's the only one they've ever known.