President Trump thinks he can change one of
the most fundamental parts of our Constitution
“with the stroke of a pen,” said Garrett Epps in
TheAtlantic.com. American citizenship has been
the birthright of everyone born in the United
States since the 14th Amendment was ratified in
the aftermath of the Civil War. But as part of his
anti-immigrant crusade, President Trump is now
threatening to sign an executive order ending
birthright citizenship for anyone whose parents
are not citizens. An authoritarian order of that
kind would leave millions of people born here in
legal limbo. The Constitution plainly states that
“all persons born or naturalized in the United
States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” are
American citizens. Nevertheless, the idea “has
crawled slowly from the fever swamps of the far
right into the center of our discourse.”
Actually, it’s birthright citizenship that’s unconstitutional,
said Michael Anton in USA Today. The
14th Amendment was written to guarantee citizenship
to freed black slaves and their descendants.
Illegal immigrants and their children aren’t “subject
to the jurisdiction” of the United States as the former
slaves were. “If the Framers simply intended to
make citizens of any person born in U.S. territory,
then that central clause has no purpose.” Not true,
said Marc Thiessen in The Washington Post. We
know from the historical debates at the time that
the 14th Amendment applied to everyone except
children born to foreign diplomats and Native
American tribes, which were considered foreign
nations at the time. Otherwise, everyone in the U.S.
is subject to the jurisdiction of our laws, including
illegal immigrants. “Strengthen border security.
Build the wall. But leave the Constitution alone.”
Trump’s argument may be radical, said Jamelle
Bouie in Slate.com, but “he is the president” and
“his words have weight.” J ust by putting birthright
citizenship on the table, Trump has emboldened
some Republicans to echo him; a conservative
Supreme Court tilted by Trump appointees
might decide to revisit the issue. Even from a conservative
perspective, however, said Lyman Stone
in TheFederalist.com, ending birthright citizenship
would be a mistake. “If you think it’s hard to
assimilate immigrants now,” imagine a permanent
underclass of millions of people born in America
with no legal rights, no allegiance to this country,
and no country to return to. They’d resent and
despise the U.S. for turning them into stateless
nonpersons. “That’s a recipe for disaster.”
