Amend the United States Constitution to allow naturalized US citizens to run for President

Section 1 of Article Two of the United States Constitution sets forth the eligibility requirements for serving as President of the United States: "No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States. " [1] United States citizenship, as defined by the United States Code, can be acquired either by Jus Solis - having being born within the United States or in U. S. territories -, by Jus Sanguinis, being born of at least one parent who was a United States Citizen at time of birth and has been "physically present in the U. S. before the child's birth for a total period of at least five years, and at least two of those five years were after the U. S. citizen parent's fourteenth birthday, or, for foreign born nationals, through the process of naturalization. [2] The United States constitution does not define the meaning of "natural born", in particular it does not specify whether there is any distinction to be made between persons whose citizenship is based on jus sanguinis and those whose citizenship is based on jus soli. As a result the eligibility of several candidates for President of the United States including George Romney, Barry Goldwater and John McCain has been questioned. Furthermore, the US Foreign Affairs Manual states that it has never been determined definitively by a court whether a person who acquired U. S. citizenship by birth abroad to U. S. citizens is a natural born citizen. There is no doubt however, that under the current constitution, foreign born, naturalized American citizens are not eligible for the office of President of the United States. Currently, there are over 12,000,000, or almost 4% of the US population, naturalized United States Citizens living in the United States, with an average of over 700,000 permanent residents becoming naturalized citizens each year. Some famous naturalized US Citizens include former Governor of Michigan Jennifer Granholm, former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, former US Senator Mel Martinez from Florida, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to name a few. In order to become a US Citizen, a person is required to be a legal permanent resident of the United States for at least 5 - in some cases 3 - years, be a "person of good moral character", pass a test on United States history and government, have a working knowledge of the English language and take the following oath of allegiance: "I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God. " A naturalized US citizen has all the rights, privileges and duties of a natural born citizen, except for the right to run for President of the United States. The current constitution therefore creates two classes of citizens, discriminates against foreign born citizens and denies them the full benefits of citizenship. In order to understand why the Natural Born Clause is embedded in the United States Constitution, it's necessary to take a look at the geopolitical environment at the time it was first drafted. In 1787 the United States was a new, fragile nation whose independence had been recognized by the British Empire just 3 years before. On July 25th, 1787 John Jay, the future first Chief Justice of the United States wrote a letter to George Washington, who was presiding officer of the Constitutional Convention. Jay wrote: "Permit me to hint whether it would not be wise and seasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of Foreigners into the administration of our national Government, and to declare expressly that the Command in Chief of the American army shall not be given to nor devolve on, any but a natural born Citizen. " A few years before, in 1772 Austria, Prussia and Russia bribed Polished noblemen to elect a disloyal King who then partitioned Poland among them. It is very probable that the delegates of the Constitutional Convention were afraid the United States could share the same fate. It is interesting to note though that the language of the constitution allowed people who were not natural born citizens at the tame of the writing of the constitution to still be eligible for the office of President of the United States. This group included the first several presidents before Martin van Burren as well as Alexander Hamilton. Unlike many other Constitutional provisions that were debated during the Constitutional Convention or analyzed in the Federalist Papers, very little written evidence exists regarding the addition of the natural born citizen requirement to the presidential eligibility clause. What the founding fathers could not have predicted was the future development of the United States of America. The US quickly became a new global power and the home of millions of immigrants from all over the world. In fact, no nation on earth has more diversity and acceptance for immigrants than the United States. The world has changed as well. We no longer have dukes and noblemen electing Kings that can decide to dissolve a Union, a Nation or a State and the electoral process today is much more thorough than it has been in the past. The media plays a huge role in today's politics and every candidate is scrutinized very closely by the press and the public. The assumption that a naturalized citizen would be less loyal to the United States than a natural born citizen is fallacious, and preventing an american citizen to run for the highest office in the country based on his or her national origin is discriminatory. I would also like to add than a natural born citizen just happened to be born within the United States, weather a naturalized citizen becomes a citizen by choice. The founding fathers could have not foreseen the development of the United States as a nation of immigrants, nor the contributions that immigrants made to the United States. However, Thomas Jefferson wrote: "I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. " In the spirit of this idea I am in favor of amending the Constitution to the United States of America to make naturalized citizens of the United States of America eligible for the office of President. 1] . http://www.usconstitution.net... 2] . http://www.law.cornell.edu...