President Trump appeared on NBC's “Meet the Press” last Sunday and gave a wide-ranging interview. He again touched on the controversial topic of birthright citizenship. This principle states that anyone born on U.S. soil should be considered a U.S. citizen no matter what, even if they have noncitizen parents or are undocumented immigrants.
President Trump wants to abolish unrestricted birthright citizenship, a practice that even Europe's most left-wing governments have not addressed. In citing the 14th Amendment as a “pitfall” of President Trump’s plan, “Meet the Press” omits six key words: “Every person born in the United States and shall submit to its jurisdiction.shall be a citizen of the United States. ”
There is nothing in the 14th Amendment that prevents Congress from enacting legislation restricting birthright citizenship, as proposed by Harry Reid in 1993.
Those words matter.
Congress has the power to define what it means to be “born in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.” Current law does not include such a limit, but Congress could create future limits that would exclude individuals born in the United States who are natural-born citizens to illegal aliens.
It's an idea that has appealed to lawmakers from both political parties.
In fact, one of the first bills (in recent memory, at least) that attempted to place legal limits on automatic birthright citizenship was created by future Senate Democratic leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-S.C.). (Nevada) in 1993. .
Senator Reed's bill was called the Immigration Stability Act of 1993. Title X of that bill would limit automatic birthright citizenship to children born in the United States whose mothers were then U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents. The fact that federal law currently imposes no such restriction does not mean it is impossible, which is why Mr. Reed proposed the change.
There is nothing in the 14th Amendment that would prevent Congress from enacting legislation restricting birthright citizenship, such as the one Mr. Reed proposed in 1993.
Those who suggest that Congress is powerless to limit birthright citizenship in any way want Congress to have the power to define who among those “born in the United States” are born “subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.” It ignores important constitutional provisions that provide for
Furthermore, the legislators who drafted the Fourteenth Amendment themselves did not intend it to automatically confer citizenship to anyone born within its geographic boundaries. At that time, such a proposal was considered ridiculous.
Senator Jacob Howard, who served on the Joint Committee on Reconstruction that drafted the Fourteenth Amendment, said of the citizenship clause:
Of course, this does not include foreigners born in the United States, foreign nationals, or those who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the U.S. government, but it includes all other classes of people.
Sen. Lyman Trumbull, an ardent abolitionist who authored the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the precursor to the Fourteenth Amendment, also argued that “subjecting to its jurisdiction'' means “bearing allegiance to no one.'' , subject to the full jurisdiction of the United States of America.'' state. ”
These policies were clearly designed to normalize citizenship for newly freed slaves after the Civil War, and everyone knew it at the time. What if someone from around the world entered our country illegally, gave birth to a child, and witnessed our highest constitutional achievements being distorted to justify automatically granting American citizenship to the new family? One can only imagine how these politicians would react.
It is worrisome that “Meet the Press,'' which has long been respected as America's leading Sunday political news program, has become too one-sided. In this example, the show appears to be attempting to present an uncontroversial issue by selectively omitting important words from the Constitution, stating that the 14th Amendment prohibits any restrictions on birthright citizenship. It falsely appears as though it is.
If we want to protect America for those who already have citizenship, we should reconsider the issue of birthright citizenship, along with the many other corruptions that undermine national security and sovereignty.
Editor's note: This article has been republished from thread On X (old Twitter).
