![\"illegal](\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/illegal-immigration-250x207.jpg\" "\\"illegal-immigration\\"")
Contrary to popular belief, children born in The Bahamas to illegal migrants are not entitled to be registered for citizenship.\u00a0 Two examples illustrate this point.<\/p>\nContrary to popular belief, children born in The Bahamas to illegal migrants are not entitled to be registered for citizenship.\u00a0 Two examples illustrate this point.<\/p>\n
Example 1: Peter buys a car, which he then gives to his wife as a gift.\u00a0 Later, the police determine that the car was stolen and confiscate the car.\u00a0 Peter bought the car in good faith and neither he nor his wife knew that the car was stolen.\u00a0 Is Peter or his wife entitled to keep the car?\u00a0 No!\u00a0 But he didn’t know that the car was stolen, and paid for the car.\u00a0 Still, no!\u00a0 Why not?\u00a0 Because the car was illegally obtained (i.e., it was stolen).\u00a0 A legal act (sale of the car) cannot result from an illegal act (stolen car).\u00a0 So even though Peter and his wife did nothing wrong, they cannot profit\/benefit from the illegal act (sale of a stolen car).\u00a0 They are not entitled to keep the car.<\/p>\n
Example 2: Joseph is a wealthy man.\u00a0 He owns expensive cars, boats and a big house.\u00a0 He has a young stay-at-home wife and two young children who live with him in his big house.\u00a0 One day Joseph is arrested and charged for criminal activity.\u00a0 At the trial, Joseph is found guilty and it is determined that all of his wealth was obtained from his criminal activity.\u00a0 All of his possessions, the expensive cars, boats, big house are confiscated.\u00a0 Joseph’s wife and two young children must move out of the house.\u00a0 They have no other possessions and nowhere to go.\u00a0 Can his wife and young children keep the house?\u00a0 No!\u00a0 Can they keep a car?\u00a0 No!\u00a0 Why not?\u00a0 Because the wealth was illegally obtained (from criminal activity).\u00a0 A legal act cannot result from an illegal act.\u00a0 So even though his wife and children did nothing wrong, they cannot profit\/benefit from his illegal acts (criminal acts).\u00a0 They are not entitled to keep Joseph’s wealth.<\/p>\n
Now to the case at hand.\u00a0 The Constitution of The Bahamas is the highest law in the land; it is the ‘supreme law’.\u00a0 It is a set of fundamental principles or rules by which a sovereign state (The Bahamas) is governed.\u00a0 The rule of law is a fundamental principle of any constitution, ours is no exception.\u00a0 Any act that is contrary to the rule of law (i.e., that breaks the law) is contrary to the constitution.\u00a0 The constitution cannot condone an illegal act; to do so would render the constitution itself null and void.<\/p>\n
Now whereas the Constitution of The Bahamas provides for a person born in The Bahamas to parents who are not Bahamian citizens to apply to be registered as a Bahamian upon attaining the age of 18 years, this entitlement may only be afforded to persons who acted according to the rule of law (i.e., parents who were in the country legally at the time of birth).\u00a0 An illegal immigrant (illegal is the key word) broke the law, and therefore the child of an illegal immigrant is not entitled to apply to register as a Bahamian because the ‘entitlement’ was illegally obtained.\u00a0 Even though the child did nothing wrong, the child cannot profit\/benefit from the illegal act (illegal migration of the parents).\u00a0 The child is not entitled to apply to be registered as a Bahamian.<\/p>\n
Therefore, all Bahamian citizenships granted in these circumstances are unconstitutional, illegal and therefore void and of no effect.<\/p>\n
As regards the children of illegal Haitian immigrants, applying the law of the land will not make these children ‘stateless’.\u00a0 According to article 11 of the Haitian constitution, \u201cAny person born of a Haitian father or Haitian mother…possesses Haitian nationality at the time of birth\u201d.\u00a0 Therefore, the child is a Haitian national at birth.\u00a0 Further, the Constitution of The Bahamas requires that foreign nationals who apply for Bahamian citizenship must first renounce the citizenship of the other country in order to receive Bahamian citizenship.\u00a0 Therefore, even if we assume that these children of Haitian parents are entitled to apply to be registered, given that these children are ‘Haitian at birth’, did they renounce their Haitian citizenship?\u00a0 If not, then by law, Bahamian citizenship cannot be conferred on these persons, making these grants of citizenship unconstitutional, null, void and of no effect.<\/p>\n
We are a small country, a few people.\u00a0 Why do we so foolishly give away our country, our birthright?\u00a0 Prime minister, attorney general, minister of immigration, we are a small country, a few people, please do your jobs and protect our country, protect our sovereignty, protect our birthright; otherwise we will be a small country, with many people, but we won’t be Bahamian.<\/p>\n
By:\u00a0 Generation Bahamian<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The writer makes an almost logical argument as to why children born to illegal migrants in The Bahamas are not entitled to citizenship. What do you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[188,41,49],"class_list":["post-18276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinions","tag-haitians","tag-immigration","tag-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18276\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}