The Official Stance Is Reinterpret Not Repeal
by digby
FYI: just because a bunch of Republicans in the southwest are now saying that they don’t support repealing and just want to “have hearing” doesn’t mean they have abandoned the idea of denying citizenship to the children of illegal aliens.
“Repeal” is a red herring. Despite the fact that the plain language has always had the logical interpretation that anyone born in the US gets citizenship, they’re going to have the radical Roberts court “interpret” the amendment for the first time, (much as they finally got their preferred interpretation of the second.) Here’s the official argument:
The current and quite-valid debate is limited to whether the amendment should be interpreted to guarantee birthright U.S. citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants. That’s it – and it’s a proper question, because the language explicitly limits birthright citizenship, in a clause often glossed over or omitted. The provision 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.”
The limitation “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” has never been decreed by the Supreme Court to confer automatic citizenship on the children of illegal immigrants. The term excludes the children born to foreign diplomats in America, for example, since they obviously maintain allegiance to their home nation, not the United States. The same question arises regarding the allegiance of those who arrive illegally and retain their foreign citizenship.
In the 1898 case of U.S. vs. Wong Kim Ark, the Supreme Court decided that when non-diplomatic foreign nationals are here legally, their children become citizens. But it has not decided the issue regarding illegal aliens. This may well give Congress room to determine the issue and to legislate by statute, rather than waiting on some future court decision.
With the major problems and expenses we experience due to illegal immigration, it’s a legitimate and necessary debate.
See they aren’t being unreasonable and seeking repeal of the 14th Amendment at all. They just think it’s been wrongly interpreted all these years and a teensy little correction needs to be made. That way it won’t be so unpleasant (for us) to send American kids who have spent their entire lives here back to a poor country they’ve never even visited. They’ll just be going “home.” Everybody likes home. That makes us good guys.
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