Senator Who Helped Write Birthright Citizenship Clause Specifically Said It Doesn’t Include Aliens
Brianna Lyman visit on Twitter @briannalyman2
The modern claim that the 14th Amendment guarantees automatic citizenship to the children of people who break into the country would have been unimaginable to the men who wrote it.
On Friday the Supreme Court agreed to review a case that could finally force a long, overdue reckoning with how the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause has been interpreted for more than a century. The case arises from leftist challenges to President Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship.
Democrats have responded to the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case as expected.
“For more than 150 years, our Constitution has spoken plainly: everyone born on American soil has an equal claim to the rights of citizenship from their first breath,” Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi posted.
New York Attorney General Letitia James posted: “Birthright citizenship is a fundamental right of our Constitution, and it’s under attack by the Trump administration.”
Former California Rep. Katie Porter said: “Birthright citizenship is literally written into the Constitution. There is no debate to be had: if you are born here, you are a citizen.”
But “birthright citizenship” is not “literally written into the Constitution,” and the framers of the amendment would likely be aghast to see how their work has been exploited by the left to facilitate and legitimize a mass invasion.
The 14th Amendment was written to guarantee citizenship to formerly enslaved Americans and their children. To that end, its first sentence reads: “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.” But it surely was not intended to be a blanket citizenship grant.
Sen. Benjamin Wade introduced the citizenship clause on May 23, 1866, believing that the amendment needed a clear definition of citizenship because the broader guarantees of the 14th Amendment depended on it. Wade originally proposed using this language: “persons born in the United States or naturalized by the laws thereof.”