@Smooth - Correct. Summary expulsion from the nation, for example, would be permissible. Catch an illegal invader coming across the border and once you've verified they are not a citizen or a holder of lawful permanent residency, out they go. Period.

@Ugrev - Nope. And I say this even after pointing out over a decade ago in this column that under that rule (never mind the existing law) I may be ineligible to be President, because I'm adopted and do not know who either (say much less both) of my birth parents are and, indeed it may be literally impossible to discover who my actual father was. I never knew either one of them but it doesn't matter and neither does it matter who raised me or who was legally considered a "parent" -- the Constitution is clear on this point; I am a citizen of the United States as I was born here (and DO know my birth name and location, which was in the United States) but I CANNOT prove I was a natural born citizen.

Likewise there is no way that it is REASONABLE to allow someone to go to, say, Russia, adopt a child and then have that person satisfy the "natural born" requirement. Nope. Such a person should have to be NATURALIZED just like any other person who comes into the nation but was not born here of American parents.

If you give birth or sire a child as a lawful permanent resident or citizen then the lineage and citizenship of said child is clear -- but it is not under any other set of circumstances.

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