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A4 U.S. NEWS
Wednesday 31 OctOber 2018
AP Explains: How U.S. birthright citizenship emerged, endured

slavery. The 14th Amend- the general naturalization
ment, ratified in July 1868, laws because only whites
assured citizenship for all, could become naturalized
including blacks. And the citizens, Rutgers University
15th Amendment, ratified School of Law professor Earl
in February 1870, awarded M. Maltz told the National
voting rights to black men, Constitution Center in a
stating those rights should conversation about citizen-
not be denied based on ship.
"race, color or previous Congress finally granted
condition of servitude." citizenship to all Native
"All persons born or natu- Americans born in the U.S.
ralized in the United States in 1924.
and subject to the jurisdic- The idea that the children
tion thereof, are citizens of of immigrants born in the
the United States and of U.S. were automatically
the State wherein they re- U.S. citizens remained un-
side," the 14th Amendment clear until 1898. That's when
says. "No State shall make the U.S. Supreme Court
In this July 13, 2005, file photo, Cornelia Brown, left, executive director of the Multicultural As- or enforce any law which ruled that San Francisco-
sociation of Medical Interpreters, talks with Lul Mohamed, a Somalian, who does translation from shall abridge the privileges born Wong Kim Ark was a
Maay and Kiswahili to English at the maternity area at the St. Luke's Campus of Faxton-St. Luke's
Healthcare in Utica, N.Y. or immunities of citizens of U.S. citizen because he was
Associated Press the United States." born in the U.S. The federal
During a debate over the government had tried to
By RUSSELL CONTRERAS noncitizens and unauthor- ship Clause and how citi- 14th Amendment, U.S. Sen. deny the son of Chinese
Associated Press ized immigrants. zens worked to be included Edgar Cowan of Pennsyl- immigrants re-entry in the
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) U.S. citizenship through in it throughout U.S. history: vania said birthright citizen- U.S. after a trip abroad on
— President Donald Trump birth comes via the 14th THE 14TH AMENDMENT ship could result in "a flood grounds he wasn't a citizen
said Tuesday he wants to Amendment , which was In the aftermath of the Civil of immigration of the Mon- under the Chinese Exclu-
end a constitutional right ratified after the Civil War War, radical Republicans gol race." He was referring sion Act.
that automatically grants to secure U.S. citizenship for in Congress sought to push to immigrants from Mongo- Still, U.S.-born Mexican-
citizenship to any baby newly freed black slaves. It through a series of con- lia and China. Americans in the 1930s
born in the United States. later was used to guaran- stitutional protections for By extending citizenship to were denied citizenship
Trump, in an interview with tee citizenship to all babies newly emancipated black those born in the U.S., the protections when authori-
"Axios on HBO," said his born on U.S. soil after court slaves. The 13th Amend- amendment nullified the ties in California and Texas
goal is halting guaranteed challenges. ment, which was ratified in Supreme Court's 1857 deci- deported them to Mexico
citizenship for babies of Here is a look at the Citizen- December 1865, outlawed sion in Dred Scott v. Sand- during the Great Depres-
ford, which held that those sion. U.S.-born Japanese-
descended from slaves Americans were denied
could not be citizens. citizenship protections
Dred Scott and his wife when they were forced
Harriet were slaves who into Japanese internment
sued for their freedom af- camps during World War II.
ter they were taken from AN EXECUTIVE ORDER
the slave state of Missouri Geoffrey Hoffman, director
to the non-slave territories of the Immigration Clinic at
of Wisconsin and Illinois the University of Houston
where slavery had been Law Center, says some pro-
prohibited by the Missouri ponents of immigration re-
Compromise. strictions have argued the
FIGHT FOR CITIZENSHIP words "subject to the juris-
Despite the Citizenship diction thereof" in the 14th
Clause and equal protec- Amendment allows the
tions afforded under the U.S. to deny citizenship to
14th Amendment, Native babies born to those in the
Americans were consis- country illegally.
tently denied the benefits However, Hoffman said
of U.S. birthright citizenship those arguments are false
and it took decades for since any person in the U.S.,
them to receive full citizen- besides diplomats, would
ship, according to the non- be subject to U.S. laws re-
partisan National Constitu- gardless of immigration sta-
tion Center. tus.
Native Americans who re- Any executive order by
mained under tribal struc- Trump or any president
tures were not considered could be subjected to a
in determining the number judicial challenge and
of representatives for states there are many articles
in Congress. And if Native in the Constitution that
Americans left tribal struc- would make a fight against
tures, they weren't eligible the Citizenship Clause
for naturalization under difficult.q