Class Constitutional Convention - Essay Example

Constitutional Convention: Foreign-Born Naturalized Citizens Should Be Able to Become President Word Count: 590 (2 pages) I.Introduction Section One, Article Two of the Constitution should be amended to allow anyone who is a foreign-born naturalized citizen to be able to become President. There are several reasons for this amendment, and several reasons against this amendment. Hopefully it might be possible that an agreement will be reached in the future regarding this amendment.II. Pros of Foreign-Born Naturalized Citizens Being Allowed to Run For President There are several pros as to why foreign-born naturalized citizens should be allowed to run for President.

Naturalized citizens should not be considered second-class citizens. Naturalized citizens should have every right to be able to run for the office of President, just as natural-born U.S. citizens do. Otherwise, this creates a rift between naturalized citizens and natural-born U.S. citizens. It denotes that naturalized citizenship is somehow less important than the natural-born U.S. citizen’s right. This is not true, but basically that is what our society is saying to immigrants who have become naturalized citizens—sending the message that they may be citizens, but they will never be accepted in the way natural-born U.S. citizens are. III. Cons of This Position The cons of taking such a position would include the following: people might possibly think that a foreign-born President of the U.S. might only have the interests of his or her native country at heart instead of the United States.

Also, Americans would probably see it as an area of concern that someone who was not necessarily originally from the United States might have other agendas in mind than besides having the nation’s interest at heart. Another element that might prevent foreign-born naturalized citizens in becoming President is that he or she might be scrutinized based upon his or her accent or appearance more than the content of what the candidate would actually be saying. It’s not polite to say, perhaps, but people profile others as to how they think their candidate should look, speak, and act.

These are just a few examples of why this position has some cons. Hopefully these issues can be analyzed more in-depth so that we can give our natur alized brother and sister citizens the same possibility to believe in the dream of becoming President if they wish to do so.IV. Conclusion Whether one believes that foreign-born naturalized citizens should be able to become President or not is not so much the issue as this is an issue of fairness. No one has control over the fact of where in the world they are born; that is just a matter of consequence.

However, foreign-born naturalized citizens should not be punished just because they were born in a foreign country and then later became U.S. citizens. For certain, it seems like foreign-born naturalized citizens must go through such a rigorous process to learn about the U.S. and its laws, and many renounce their own national citizenship. In this manner, it is then rather appalling to stomach that these people are not offered the full opportunities that natural-born U.S. citizens are allowed, one of which is the ability to run for the office of President of the United States.

This is a grave injustice which should be righted. Our country was built on the backs of foreigners, and it is a slap in the face to them that they can be citizens of the country but are not awarded full rights that any natural-born U.S. citizen has. This is not only ethically questionable but it is a problem we can do something about. Therefore, an amendment to Section 1 Article Two is needful to show the foreign-born naturalized citizens the fact that we have respect for their rights.