Marriage to a US citizen or birthing US citizen children should not automatically reclassify an illegal immigrant as having a legal status or make it any easier for them to obtain legal US residency or citizenship. Rather, these illegal immigrants would have the same fines imposed as conventional illegal immigrants.

Illegal Immigrant Marriage

One difference would be that an illegal immigrant married to a US citizen would have 6 months from the date of discovery (instead of the normal 3 months) to leave the country. If an illegal immigrant is part of a couple that is known to be pregnant on the date of discovery or who already have borne children together, then that illegal immigrant would be allowed 12 months from the date of discovery to leave the country.

Illegal Immigrant Children

Children born in the US to at least one illegal immigrant parent should not be given US citizenship and the parents should pay the illegal immigrant fine for the child at the normal rate of $10 per day, beginning on the day of the child’s birth up until the date of discovery.  However, until the US Constitution is properly interpreted to deny citizenship status to people who are not legally “subject to the jurisdiction [of the United States]” (14th Amendment), the child will unfortunately be granted US citizenship.

Nevertheless, the daily fine should still be $10 per day whether one parent or both are illegal immigrants.