The Fourteenth Amendment and Birthright Citizenship

In their continuing effort to fix all of the wrongs in human society, Adam and Jeff discuss the concept of birthright citizenship.  In rendering a Shakespearean-worthy reading of the Fourteenth Amendment, Adam points out that the basis for granting birthright citizenship is that a person born in the United States is subject to the laws of the United States.  However, this is a weasely standard because a foreign national could commit a crime in the United States and be subject to its jurisdiction.  Birthright citizenship also creates a "divided loyalty" issue because most birth tourism babies are born in the United States and then immediately whisked back to their homeland where they will be raised with little likelihood of having any attachment to the United States.  In the case of China, Jeff points out that you could eventually have hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens who are ordered to vote a particular way in American presidential elections to elect candidates who are more sympathetic to the Chinese Communist Party.  Jeff argues that the inclusion of the word "reside" in the Fourteenth Amendment is more important because it conditions citizenship on actually living in the country and paying taxes as opposed to conferring citizenship on a baby who happens to be born while his or her parents are visiting Disneyworld.