The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, adopted 144 years ago on July 9, provides for the grant of birthright citizenship to the American-born children of unauthorized immigrants and lawful immigrants with various forms of residency. Despite the current controversy around this provision, the 14th Amendment is unintentionally successful as a policy for assimilating the children of immigrants.
Immigrants to the U.S. assimilate very quickly. Speaking of America’s openness to immigrants, former President Ronald Reagan stated, “An immigrant can live in France but not become a Frenchman; he can live in Germany but not become a German; he can live in Japan but not become Japanese, but anyone from any part of the world can come to America and become an American.” Americans, immigrants, and their descendants become Americans. Our system of birthright citizenship makes “Americanization” even easier.
Today, in some respects, they assimilate even more rapidly than previous immigrant waves such as the Irish. What happens to societies that accept large numbers of immigrants but don’t extend birthright citizenship to children is a warning of what could happen here if birthright citizenship is ever discontinued.
First, a little bit of history. The 14th Amendment, enacted in the aftermath of the Civil War, included the citizenship clause to overrule the 1857 Supreme Court Dred Scott v. Sandforddecisionthat in part stated that black Americans could never become citizens.
The citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment 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.”
During the debate, it was understood that the citizenship clause would extend to the children of immigrants who were, under the existing immigration law, unable to naturalize, such as Asians and other nonwhite immigrants.
Sen. Jacob Howard, R-Mich., introduced the citizenship clause. During Senate debate, he said it “will not, of course, include persons 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.” (Emphasis added.)
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