Bell Work

•What does it mean to be a citizen?

Citizenship

The 14th Amendment• Before the Civil War, the

individual states said who was and was not a citizen.

• The 14th Amendment changed that.

• It defines citizenship nationally.• “All persons born or naturalized

in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside.”

• This declares that a person can be become a citizen by birth or by naturalization.

Citizenship by Birth• Most citizens were born

in the United States or its territories.• This is jus soli citizenship

• The law of the soil.

• Some citizens are citizens by birth who are born outside of the U.S.• This is jus sanguinis

citizenship• The law of the blood.

Citizenship by Naturalization• Naturalization is when someone

becomes a citizen after birth• Only Congress can provide for

naturalization.• Individual naturalization is the

most common form of naturalization.• 800,000 people a year become

citizens through the naturalization process.

• Collective naturalization is when whole groups of people are naturalized en masse.• Acquisition of new territory, by

treaty or by Congress.

Loss of Citizenship• Expatriation is the legal

process by which a loss of citizenship occurs.

• Citizenship cannot be taken away by Congress.

• Expatriation is a voluntary thing.

• Denaturalization is when someone automatically loses citizenship by court order

• This happens only if they obtained their citizenship by fraud or deception.

A Nation of Immigrants• Everyone living in the United States,

except those of Native American ancestry, are immigrants or descendants of immigrants.

• Some 70 million people have immigrated to the U.S. since 1820.

• Immigration began to be regulated in the 1880s with the close of the frontier.

• First restrictions were with the Chinese Exclusionary Act in 1882.

• Today the Immigration Act of 1990 governs immigration policy.

• The ceiling is now set at 650,000 immigrants annually.

• 1/3 of people admitted must have family here already.

• Those with special skills are also given preference

• Also, some 20 million nonimmigrants also come her each year on VISA’s

Undocumented Immigrants• Estimates are that 12

million undocumented immigrants live in the U.S.• Authorities

apprehend about 1 million each year.• http://video.pbs.org/

video/2334937551

Ticket Out

•What would your immigration policy look like?