Prepare to be Dumbfounded — The True Intent Behind Birthright Citizenship

Suppose, for the purpose of an introductory thought experiment, we imagine four different families. The first family is a family of former African slaves who were granted citizenship by the 14^th Amendment. The second family consisted of a European married couple who came to see New York with a tourist visa; soon after their arrival, the pregnant wife goes into labor and gives birth to their child. The third family is a family of Russian immigrants who overstayed their visa and had a child four years later. Finally, the fourth family grows after two illegal immigrants from Mexico have a child born somewhere in Texas. Now the question – which family is subject to the citizenship clause of the 14^th Amendment? (“All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States…”)

To complete my trilogy of articles on the subject of illegal immigration, I decided to address this crucial question the answer to which seems obvious to most of us. If your answer to the hypothetical example is “all of the above” then you would be completely wrong. Matter of fact, according to the intent of the Citizenship Clause there is only one family which would be able to receive birthright citizenship – the family of former African slaves. They were, after all, “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States as a result of the 3/5^th compromise and other constitutional provisions which gave them some legal standing.

In a forgotten testimony to congress, the author of the citizenship clause of the 14^th Amendment Senator Jacob Howard explained:

“This amendment which I have offered is simply declaratory of what I regard as the law of the land already, that every person born within the limits of the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, is by virtue of natural law and national law a citizen of the United States. This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the Government of the United States, but will include every other class of persons”.

Henceforth a key question follows: If illegal aliens are not subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Constitution, then where does Congress derive the power to give them birth right citizenship? The answer is simple – nowhere.