Birthright Citizenship BS

 Today, I heard one of the cook's talking to the assistant manager about birthright citizenship. I did not hear all he said, nor did I respond to what I did hear. I was too busy trying to get my job done.

This anti-birthright movement, I find to be anathema. 

And what did I find in my email tonight? The Brennan Center newsletter.

Presidents Can’t End Birthright Citizenship by Thomas Wolf. He writes:

President Trump claimed to end birthright citizenship on the first day of his second term. Trump’s executive order is unconstitutional, in direct conflict with the plain language of the 14th Amendment and over a century’s worth of Supreme Court case law. It will be litigated immediately and its prospects of surviving those court fights are slim, even before a Supreme Court stacked with conservative justices and Trump appointees.

Before getting into the merits of the constitutional case against Trump’s executive order, it’s worth pausing to stress the brazenness of what he has done. Every new president swears to uphold the Constitution. Only minutes after taking that oath, President Trump violated it — flagrantly.

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Turning to the history and text of the 14th Amendment: Before that amendment was ratified, America had a racialized class system in which enslaved people were denied the most basic rights granted by our founding documents. The Supreme Court blessed this system with its infamous Dred Scott decision, which ruled that enslaved people and their children could never be citizens. The Civil War was waged to put an end to this state of affairs. And, as a condition of their readmission to the Union, former slaveholding states were required to accept the principles reflected in the 14th Amendment. Among them, a plain statement of who is a citizen: “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.” In other words, if you’re born here, you’re one of us. It doesn’t matter who your parents were, whether they were free or enslaved, American citizens or not: You’re one of us. There is no other way to understand those words.

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Trump’s order contends — as opponents of birthright citizenship long have — that the children of undocumented immigrants can’t be citizens, because they allegedly aren’t “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States. That’s nonsense. Undocumented immigrants and their children are required to follow the same laws as everyone else on U.S. soil, including paying taxes. (As distinct from the primary example of people not subject to the federal government’s jurisdiction: foreign diplomats.)

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When we ratified the 14th Amendment, we rejected the idea that some people born here are less than others in the eyes of the law. We reject that idea again today. We say that out loud — for everyone to hear — because protecting our Constitution requires all of us to speak and act like we still have one. No matter what kinds of orders might come off a president’s desk.

The Guardian has an Explainer on U.S. birthright citizenship, What is US birthright citizenship and what does Trump’s executive order do?

As a concept, jus soli comes from English common law, which held centuries ago that people born in England were natural subjects.

But unrestricted birthright citizenship in the US that includes people of color – not just white Americans – derives from the US constitution. In 1857, the supreme court ruled that Black descendants of enslaved people could not be US citizens. To right this injustice, just over a decade later, the US ratified the 14th amendment.

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In fact, dozens of countries have a right to citizenship based on place of birth. Like the US, most of these countries are within the western hemisphere, including Canada and Mexico. That said, birthright citizenship is less common in other regions of the world.

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Notably, the executive order targets kids born to both unauthorized immigrants and people legally in the US on temporary visas.

History and right are against Trump and those who change the 14th Amendment. 

 However, I have two questions for those who do want to end birthright citizenship:

1. With what will you replace birthright citizenship?
2. What are you getting for your money by getting rid of birthright citizenship?

sch 1/24; update 1/25