Poligraft

 Birthright Citizenship Looms as Next Immigration Battle

Analysis of Poligraft

I think that Poligraft is a reliable and helpful tool for journalists. It facilitates their investigative work by providing political context to news stories in the form of contributions from organizations to politicians and contributions received by politicians. The resources it uses, which are the Center for Responsive Politics and the National Institute for Money in State Politics, are both reliable and trustworthy.

It is important that a newspaper has balance of issues, people, news and opinion. The information provided by this website can help detect the bias present in any article. Once a journalist knows this bias is present, he or she can then balance it out. Instead of searching public records for background information, journalists can submit articles to Poligraft for analysis.

I think that newspaper companies could profit from using this tool on a regular basis. If Poligraft helps a newspaper notice that most of its articles are leaning too left or too right, it can then neutralize its articles. Poligraft could help detect negative trends and allow the newspaper to take corrective action.

This tool could even help inspire articles of its own. A journalist might encounter unusual numbers as he or she is evaluating the political contributions of a certain political figure or organization and then decide to investigate and write a story about it.

Summary

 U.S. lawmakers are debating the current policy that grants immediate citizenship to immigrants’ offspring who are born in the United States. Those in opposition of the policy say that some women cross the border when they are ready to deliver so they can have “anchor babies.” Even though these cases are rare, Arizona lawmakers are pushing to create two different birth certificates in their states. One would be for the children of citizens and the other for the children of illegal immigrants. The article “Birthright Citizenship Looms as Next Immigration Battle” summarizes the issue and offers varied points of view and reactions on the subject. 

 

Citations

“This is not a far-out, extremist position,” said John Kavanagh, one of the Arizona legislators who is leading an effort that has been called just that. “Only a handful of countries in the world grant citizenship based on the GPS location of the birth.”

“This is political theater, not a serious effort to create a legal test,” said Gabriel J. Chin, a law professor at the University of Arizona whose grandfather immigrated to the United States from China at a time when ethnic Chinese were excluded from the country. “It strikes me as unwise, un-American and unconstitutional.”

 “I can’t really say much more without showing my hand,” Mr. Kobach said in an e-mail. “But, yes, I am confident that the law will stand up in court.”

“It doesn’t seem fair to just change the rules like that,” Ms. Gomez said.

“I never imagined being here,” said Ms. Ledezma, 25, who was brought to Phoenix from Mexico as a toddler. “I’ll bet right now that my girls are asking, ‘Where’s Mom?’ ”

 “And we’re not being mean,” Mr. Hunter told a Tea Party rally in Southern California. “We’re just saying it takes more than walking across the border to become an American citizen. It’s what’s in our souls.”

“They call themselves patriots, but they pick and choose which parts of the Constitution they support,” said Lydia Guzman, a Latino activist in Phoenix. “They’re fear-mongerers. They’re clowns.”

“I was born and raised in New York,” responded Mr. Kavanagh, who is chairman of the Appropriations Committee of the Arizona House. “I can ride a subway, drink coffee, read the newspaper and make sure my pockets are not picked all at the same time.”