Birthright Citizenship Trump Right Again — President Trump, in an Axios interview released yesterday (Oct. 30), said he may use an executive order to end “birthright citizenship”.
Oh, did the heads spin in the pundit class. Oh, did our feckless political leaders — that’s you Paul Ryan — get vapors.
Birthright citizenship means automatic citizenship for those born in United States. It’s based on the first sentence in the 14th Amendment which says: 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 political class claims that means if you are born here you are a citizen — even if here illegally.
Consider a married Russian couple working at the Russian embassy. The wife becomes pregnant and gives birth in an American hospital. Is the baby a citizen? LOL. So much for the claim that just being born on U.S. soil makes you American.
Immigration enforcement is vested in the executive branch. If the commonsense understanding of the 14th Amendment is upheld by the courts — granted that is not guaranteed — Trump most certainly can end automatic citizenship for the newborns of illegals.
And he should.
The Left’s/Progressives’ interpretation of the 14th amendment isn’t based on, “born…in the United States,” as much as it is based on “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” They interpret “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” as in this example: A German national comes to the US and steals a car. He is caught, arrested, tried, and convicted under US law. That is how they interpret, “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
But the strict meaning of that phrase is that the German national, as a German national, is subject to the laws of Germany, regardless where he finds himself. That doesn’t mean that in our example, he cannot be held responsible for breaking our law. It means that he is still subject to his native country’s laws, until-and this is the important point-until he should renounce his citizenship and become a naturalized American citizen. It’s the meaning of “subject”, in the old sense, “subjects of the king.” In our case, we are subjects of our basic law, the Constitution.
So, under the previous interpretation of the 14th Amendment, under the original interpretation, a Spanish couple, citizens of Spain, arrive in the US. The woman is pregnant and gives birth. Her child is not a US citizen, but a citizen of Spain. This interpretation was abandoned in-wait for it-the Sixties (anyone surprised?) The Trump administration is returning to an original interpretation of the Constitution. The Supreme Court is likely to uphold it, should there be a legal challenge.
–But the strict meaning of that phrase is that the German national, as a German national, is subject to the laws of Germany, regardless where he finds himself. That doesn’t mean that in our example, he cannot be held responsible for breaking our law. It means that he is still subject to his native country’s laws, until-and this is the important point-until he should renounce his citizenship and become a naturalized American citizen. It’s the meaning of “subject”, in the old sense, “subjects of the king.” In our case, we are subjects of our basic law, the Constitution.–
Exactly!!!