United States of America
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads in part:
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and
subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the
State wherein they reside."
Babies born to
illegal alien mothers within U.S. borders are called anchor babies
because under the 1965 immigration Act, they act as an anchor that pulls the
illegal alien mother and eventually a host of other relatives into permanent
U.S. residency. (Jackpot babies is another term).
The United States did not limit immigration in 1868 when the Fourteenth
Amendment was ratified. Thus there were, by definition, no illegal immigrants
and the issue of citizenship for children of those here in violation of the law
was nonexistent. Granting of automatic citizenship to children of illegal alien
mothers is a recent and totally inadvertent and unforeseen result of the
amendment and the Reconstructionist period in which it was ratified.
In 1866, Senator Jacob Howard clearly spelled out the intent of the 14th
Amendment by stating:
"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. It settles the great
question of citizenship and removes all doubt as to what persons are or are not
citizens of the United States. This has long been a great desideratum in the
jurisprudence and legislation of this country."
This understanding was reaffirmed by Senator Edward Cowan, who stated:
"[A foreigner in the United States] has a right to the
protection of the laws; but he is not a citizen in the ordinary acceptance of
the word..."
The phrase "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" was intended to
exclude American-born persons from automatic citizenship whose allegiance to the
United States was not complete. With illegal aliens who are unlawfully in the
United States, their native country has a claim of allegiance on the child.
Thus, the completeness of their allegiance to the United States is impaired,
which therefore precludes automatic citizenship.
Supreme Court decisions
The correct interpretation of the 14th Amendment is that an
illegal alien mother is subject to the jurisdiction of her native
country, as is her baby.
Over a century ago, the Supreme Court appropriately confirmed this restricted
interpretation of citizenship in the so-called "Slaughter-House cases" [83 US 36
(1873) and 112 US 94 (1884)]13. In the 1884 Elk v.Wilkins
case12, the phrase "subject to its jurisdiction" was interpreted to
exclude "children of ministers, consuls, and citizens of foreign states born
within the United States." In Elk, the American Indian claimant was
considered not an American citizen because the law required him to be "not
merely subject in some respect or degree to the jurisdiction of the United
States, but completely subject to their political jurisdiction and owing them
direct and immediate allegiance."
The Court essentially stated that the status of the parents determines the
citizenship of the child. To qualify children for birthright citizenship, based
on the 14th Amendment, parents must owe "direct and immediate allegiance" to the
U.S. and be "completely subject" to its jurisdiction. In other words, they must
be United States citizens.
Congress subsequently passed a special act to grant full citizenship to
American Indians, who were not citizens even through they were born within the
borders of the United States. The Citizens Act of 1924, codified in 8USCSß1401,
provides that:
The following shall be nationals and citizens of the United
States at birth:
(a) a person born in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof;
(b) a person born in the United States to a member of an Indian, Eskimo,
Aleutian, or other aboriginal tribe.
In 1889, the Wong Kim Ark Supreme Court case10,11 once
again, in a ruling based strictly on the 14th Amendment, concluded
that the status of the parents was crucial in determining the citizenship of the
child. The current misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment is based in part upon
the presumption that the Wong Kim Ark ruling encompassed illegal
aliens. In fact, it did not address the children of illegal aliens and
non-immigrant aliens, but rather determined an allegiance for legal
immigrant parents based on the meaning of the word domicil(e).
Since it is inconceivable that illegal alien parents could have a legal
domicile in the United States, the ruling clearly did not extend birthright
citizenship to children of illegal alien parents. Indeed, the ruling
strengthened the original intent of the 14th Amendment.
The original intent of the 14th Amendment was clearly not to
facilitate illegal aliens defying U.S. law and obtaining citizenship for their
offspring, nor obtaining benefits at taxpayer expense. Current estimates
indicate there may be between 300,000 and 700,000 anchor babies born each year
in the U.S., thus causing illegal alien mothers to add more to the U.S.
population each year than immigration from all sources in an average year before
1965. (See
consequences.)
American citizens must be wary of elected politicians voting to illegally
extend our generous social benefits to illegal aliens and other criminals.
