Letter to the editor: Not a crime if you can get away with it

OPINION:

This week’s Supreme Court decision that any child born in the United States is per se a citizen of the United States raises serious questions (“Supreme Court shuts down Trump’s attempt to change birthright citizenship,” Web, June 30).

Isn’t the claim of birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants who are domiciled in a foreign country a theft of the privileges and prerogatives of a nation’s citizens, including massive monetary benefits?

Didn’t the parents commit a crime by entering the country illegally and aren’t they profiting from that crime by claiming the rights and privileges of a citizen for any child who just happened to be born in that country? Don’t the privileges of the child’s citizenship also convey resident privileges to the parents?

Doesn’t this clearly constitute profiting from a crime and separate consideration from children born here by legal residents?

And isn’t this the first time in the history of our nation’s jurisprudence that the Supreme Court has made it legal to profit from a crime?

Is the court telling us that this a class of statutory crime that isn’t really a crime if you can get away with it?

NORTON RUBENSTEIN

Richmond, Virginia