[rsfern]

One thing I don’t understand is how this is even a choice the parents have the legal right to make, assuming their US citizen children do not have passports (I don’t know if the answer to that is publicly known). Can a child legally be taken out of the country without a passport and some kind of verifications?

[pessimizer]

I think the US government seizing the birthright citizen children of undocumented immigrant parents is an extreme position.

[rsfern]

That’s a strawman argument that I would never advocate, and completely ignores my question.

Alternatives include arranging legal custody for the child and to stay in the US with a relative (as one family was attempting), or finding a legal way for them to leave the country with their parents.

Instead, it seems the government is rushing to illegally remove these children before the courts can intervene

[bee_rider]

What’s the non-extreme option, if the plan is to kick out the non-citizen parents of US citizen children?

[AustinDev]

What happens is a single parent is sent to prison? The state takes care of the children.

[mc32]

The same happens to US citizens who have/bear children in other countries. Moreover some will do much as assume the children do not have local citizenship but US citizenship despite being born in that non-US country.

[47282847]

Only few countries give birthright to children born on their territory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jus_soli

[LorenPechtel]

I don't think the lack of documentation is a barrier to deportation. All that matters is that the country they are being deported to agrees to take them. But this has been rather routinely violated by ICE in the past--they are a totally criminal organization. (They would deport people by shoving them into Mexico--never mind if they are actually Mexican or not.)