TOW #1 - The Front Line Against Birthright Citizenship

U.S. born children of undocumented Mexican immigrants are having their citizenship tested in Texas. Thousands of natural-born children are being deprived of their full rights because of their immigrant parents. Parents cannot receive birth certificates for their children born in the U.S. because they do not possess an acceptable form of I.D. The only accessible form of I.D. that many immigrants have, the matrícula consular, was no longer accepted after 2008 because it wasn’t secure enough. Families filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas in order to get a form of identification that is both acceptable and accessible. The author of this article, Jonathan Blitzer, is an editor for The New Yorker that often writes about American politics. He studied English and philosophy at Columbia University. Blitzer writes for the American public in effort to bring light to Texas’s alleged discrimination against Mexican immigrants. Blitzer achieves his purpose well with his tone and irony. Blitzer’s use of phrases like  “stripped away the rights” and “another mother had to fight” lets the reader see the situation as unconstitutional and unfair to the immigrants. Additionally, after he questions Texas’s intentions for fighting the lawsuit, Blitzer includes a quote from the Dallas County Commissioner, who says, “I am aware of the concerns about the reliability of the consular identification document. However, I am hard pressed to imagine how its use in this context poses any threat of identity theft, fraud, or other abuse.” The irony of the Dallas County Commissioner saying this makes the reader question Texas’s motives. Finally, the reader makes the connection when Blitzer includes a thought from a congressman who believes that “the state’s response to the lawsuit coincides with a broader effort to create a federal court case around birthright citizenship.” Since birthright citizenship, in Texas, primarily affects Mexican immigrants, Blitzer conveys to the reader that Texas’s actions are discriminatory.

The Front Line Against Birthright Citizenship - The New Yorker