The rule of jus sanguinis (correctly pronounced like "Yoos sahng-WEEN-ees.) translates as "right of blood," whereby citizenship is granted if one or more parents of the propositus are citizens of the state. Thus, a person born in a foreign country whose parents are U.S. citizens is automatically also U.S. citizen. The writ of jus soli is the opposite, also true in the United States, whereby an individual born on U.S. soil, even if born to illegal immigrants, is endowed with citizenship notwithstanding.
