Did you know that hundreds of thousands of babies born in America every year to illegal aliens automatically become citizens at the moment of their birth?

That’s government’s policy. All children born on American soil are citizens. It’s called “Birthright Citizenship.”

But it can be changed – by either the courts, or Congress, according to The Heritage Foundation, a conservative ‘think tank’ based in Washington, D.C.

Heritage is sending ballots to thousands of voters and taxpayers, asking for their positions on this massive economic burden on our nation’s budget. The responses will be counted and the results mailed to members of Congress and the Bush Administration.

“We believe that birthright citizenship is wrong, both practically and constitutionally,” according to Heritage Foundation President Edwin J. Feulner. “We the people of the United States have a right to determine how many immigrants we want to accept. We do this through our elected representatives.”

But if anyone in this country – on a student visa, a tourist visa, or completely illegally – can have a baby who is automatically a citizens – “we can never hope to control immigration,” Heritage reported.

In some border stets, it is estimated that as many as 70 or 80 percent of babies born have parents who are in this country illegally. “And we know that some people come here specifically to have their babies so that their family will be put on a path to citizenship,” Heritage found.

Birthright citizenship is based on a mistaken interpretation of the Constitution. The Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment provides that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

This Amendment was passed after the Civil War in order to make clear that slaves who had been freed were U.S. citizens.

The Senators who wrote t he Amendment did not intend it to mean that everyone born here is a citizen. The Heritage Foundation’s legal experts have studied the history of the Amendment, the statements of those who wrote the Amendment, the laws Congress passed on citizenship at the time, and the legal cases about the Amendment.

All of that research has determined that we are not required by the Constitution to grant birthright citizenship.

These experienced constitutional scholars have concluded that Congress can eliminate birthright citizenship simply by passing a resolution.

This is why Heritage is sending its members and the media (that’s me) a Citizenship Ballot.

The Heritage Foundation is educating members of Congress on this issue to show them two things: First, that birthright citizenship is a disastrous policy for America – and second, that they have the power to change the rules of citizenship (the reason I’m giving this column to Heritage’s national campaign.

The Heritage Foundation is a nonprofit foundation. It does not take any money from the government because the foundation wants to remain independent. Instead, Heritage relies on America’s voters and taxpayers to support the major issues they pursue.

“We have a tremendous amount of work ahead because open borders groups and others supporting birthright citizenship and are fighting to keep it,” Heritage informed its members.

“That’s why we have to educate first on why birthright citizenship is a disaster for America’s future, and then show them that they can change it.”

It’s up to you, “the people,” to make a difference. Step up and help Heritage to achieve its goal of protecting America’s taxpayers.

The Heritage Foundation is one of my favorite constitutional organizations that is committed to the “rule of law.” We must reign in government before they bankrupt this once great country that used to be the land of “the brave and the free.”

(Gordon Bishop, a ‘Who’s Who In America” national award-winning author, historian, syndicated columnist, the recipient of 8 Congressional Commendations, and New Jersey’s first “Journalist-of-the-University”—1986/New Jersey Press Association.)