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Nonpartisan Debate Series
PRO/CONversations
Bringing live debate to campus
ASU’s Institute of Politics, in partnership with nonprofit media platform Open to Debate, brings live debate to campus this year in a special nonpartisan series titled PRO/CONversations. Produced by Arizona PBS the series will model civil discourse for students while offering journalism students hands-on production experience.
“ASU has long set the standard for innovation in higher education, and now we’re proud to lead in modeling civil discourse,” says Ambassador Flake. “Partnering with Open to Debate brings a national platform to ASU’s campus and underscores the university’s commitment to showing that respectful and constructive debate still has a place in American public life.”
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Thursday, Oct. 9
Should America End Birthright Citizenship?
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Understanding what’s at stake
Birthright citizenship, guaranteed by the 14th Amendment’s jus soli principle, grants U.S. citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil, regardless of parents’ legal status.
Recently, it has come under scrutiny following an Executive Order seeking to limit citizenship for children of noncitizens, now being challenged in court. Legal scholars, civil rights advocates, and lawmakers are also questioning whether it should be altered, and if so, what it would mean to be born in the Untied States.
Supporters argue the 14th Amendment was meant to make citizenship a right, not a privilege, and that it prevents children from being punished for their parents’ status while encouraging long-term economic and civic contributions. Ending birthright citizenship would also create a permanent underclass of vulnerable stateless children born and raised in America but denied the rights of full citizens, such as healthcare and education.
Critics say it fuels illegal immigration, encourages “birth tourism,” and grants citizenship to children of those with no legal ties to the U.S. They argue this creates perverse incentives and strains an already overburdened immigration system.
Debated by:
PRO / Arguing in favor
Horace Cooper
Horace Cooper is a constitutional scholar, a senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research, the chairman of the Project 21 National Advisory Board, an initiative to promote the views of African-Americans whose entrepreneurial spirit, dedication to family, and commitment to individual responsibility have not traditionally been echoed by the nation’s civil rights establishment, and a legal commentator. He averages over four hundred talk radio appearances per year, representing the National Center and Project 21, in addition to regular television appearances and interviews with print media. He is also the author of “Put Y’all Back in Chains” and “How Trump is Making Black America Great Again.” Cooper previously taught constitutional law at George Mason University and was a senior counsel to U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey.
PRO / Arguing in favor
Mark Krikorian
Mark Krikorian, a nationally recognized expert on immigration issues, serves as Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies. He oversees the Center’s work to provide research and policy analysis of economic, social, demographic, fiscal, and other impacts of immigration on the United States to educate government officials, media, and the public. Krikorian’s knowledge and expertise are sought by legislators and news media, and he has testified before Congress as well as before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Following his participation as a featured speaker at policy conferences in Europe, he initiated the creation of the International Network for Immigration Research, which establishes a cooperative arrangement between research organizations from four countries that share similar perspectives on immigration.
Krikorian has published articles in numerous outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, among others across the country. He is a contributor at National Review Online and has appeared on all major cable and broadcast news networks. He is the author of “The New Case against Immigration, Both Legal and Illegal” and “How Obama is Transforming America through Immigration” and co-authored “Open Immigration: Yea & Nay” with Alex Nowrasteh.
CON / Arguing against
Kris Mayes
Kris Mayes is the 27th attorney general for Arizona, who has distinguished herself as a fighter for the people in a lifetime of public service. She served a senior role in Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano’s administration and was later elected to the Arizona Corporation Commission, where she served as chair. During Mayes’s time on the Arizona Corporation Commission, her leadership helped create tens of thousands of high-paying jobs, saved Arizona consumers billions of dollars, and required utilities to produce more clean and efficient energy — including solar and wind. She also worked to preserve Arizona’s water resources. Prior to her election as Attorney General, Mayes worked as a professor at Arizona State University’s School of Global Sustainability, taught a course on energy law for the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at ASU, and was a reporter at The Arizona Republic. She studied political science and journalism at Arizona State University. She later earned a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University, as well as her law degree from ASU, where she graduated magna cum laude.
CON / Arguing against
Chris Newman
Chris Newman is the Legal Director for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) based in its Los Angeles office. He has worked with day laborers since 2002, was hired as NDLON’s first attorney in 2004, and has helped develop and coordinate NDLON’s work to defend and advance day laborers’ civil, workplace, and human rights. He was counsel on a coalition lawsuit challenging Arizona’s SB 1070 in federal court. Before working at NDLON, he was the founding coordinator of the Wage Clinic and Legal Program at El Centro Humanitario para los Trabajadores, a day laborer work center in Denver, Colorado. He is the recipient of an Academy of Educational Development New Voices Fellowship. He is currently a Transatlantic Forum on Migration and Integration fellow at the German Marshall Fund and teaches at the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. He earned his J.D. with honors from the University of Denver College of Law.