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You've Got a Better Chance of Being Born on a Plane

By Timmy Watson in News on Dec 9, 2006 5:45PM

06_12_09_mexicana.jpgEn route to Milwaukee to visit relatives, a 42-year-old woman gave birth to a baby girl on a Mexicana Airlines flight from Guadalajara, Mexico. The plane landed at O'Hare, and officials say the 7-pound, 8-ounce baby was delivered on the aircraft by an obstetrician. Obstetricians on a Plane is currently in the works.

The citizenship of the baby girl is still in question. Naturalization law states that a person born in U.S. airspace is a United States Citizen; officials are still hashing out exactly where the girl was born.

If, in the future, the girl ever decides she would like to become a U.S. citizen, she may realize she had a better chance of being born in United States airspace than jumping through the hoops of citizenship. This week the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (UCIS) released new questions for the citizenship test. They also indicated price increases for the citizenship process are in the works. The 144 questions posted by the UCIS here will be used in a pilot program in 10 cities. They will be cut to 100 and rolled out to the rest of the nation in 2008.

The UCIS and the Sun-Times have published all 144 questions, but here are a couple for your reading pleasure.

  1. 105. What country sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States? A: France
  2. 121. Which U.S. World War II general later became President? A: Dwight Eisenhower
  3. 101. What group of essays supported passage of the U.S. Constitution? A: The Federalist Papers
  4. 60. What is the majority political party in the House of Representatives now? A: Democratic Party

Now, we know our base of intelligent readers will look at the overall list and say, they only need 60% to pass so what's the big deal? The big deal is that our education system in the United States has produced thousands of natural citizens who could not pass this test. We agree there should be the allegiance oath and some sort of naturalization test, but this is a little overkill.

In August, Homeland Security released numbers suggesting that over 11 million illegal immigrants reside in the country. 06_12_09_immigrationrally.jpgThe Government has their fingers stuck in a Chinese finger trap over this one. We've got borders that aren't secure on the one finger and a broken documentation process for people living in our country on the other. Is our plan of action to create the great wall of paperwork to keep immigrants out?

In 2003, Roosevelt University released data that show 18% of the population in Chicago are immigrants (legal and illegal). The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights are trying to act on the new questions now and provide feedback in an attempt to ease the blow of tougher questions and more expenses to the law-abiding community that are attempting to become United States citizens.

Mexicana Airlines image via So_Cal_Metro.