ABSTRACT
The United States of America is arguably the most ethnically and racially diversenation on earth. Who is an American, and perhaps more critically important for the discussions of this book, who ought to be considered an American has been and continues to be a vexing issue. Although there is widespread consensus that a person born in the United States is legally a native-born American citizen, there are many Americans who believe and who argue that children born of illegal residents ought not to be considered native-born American citizens. Such persons would deny citizenship to the children of unauthorized resident aliens. An additional and equally vexing issue is how we describe or categorize Americans. There are many tens of millions of naturalized American citizens who were born in a dizzying array of countries of originnearly two hundred such. How such individuals identify themselves, and how the government categorizes them has changed over time, and has important implications for politics and public policy.
