{"id":2395934,"date":"2025-01-28T07:50:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T12:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/yes-republicans-can-legally-rein-in-birthright-citizenship\/"},"modified":"2025-01-28T07:52:41","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T12:52:41","slug":"yes-republicans-can-legally-rein-in-birthright-citizenship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/yes-republicans-can-legally-rein-in-birthright-citizenship\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes, Republicans Can Legally Rein In Birthright Citizenship"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fyes-republicans-can-legally-rein-in-birthright-citizenship%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2395934&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>In his\u200d early days as president, Donald J. \u2062trump issued an executive order aimed at limiting birthright citizenship, a \u2062concept enshrined in\u2063 the \u200bFourteenth amendment, which states that all persons born in the U.S. are citizens. This sparked legal challenges\u200c from left-leaning attorneys general \u2062in 18 states. The heart of the debate centers on the \u2064phrase \u201csubject to the jurisdiction thereof,\u201d which raises questions about the\u200c citizenship of children born\u200c to non-citizens and undocumented immigrants.<\/p>\n<p>Proponents of a restrictive interpretation argue that the amendment was never \u200dmeant to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/birthright-citizenship-is-a-pernicious-lie-thats-destroying-america\/\" title=\"Birthright Citizenship Is A Pernicious Lie That\u2019s Destroying America\">grant automatic citizenship<\/a> to children\u200c of those not fully subject to \u2062U.S. laws, citing historical legislative precedents and the\u200d original intent of the amendment&#8217;s framers. as an example,it was clarified\u2064 that children\u2064 of diplomats and \u200dothers\u2064 owed allegiance to foreign powers would not\u2064 be granted citizenship.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover,\u2063 practices like birth tourism, where pregnant women travel to the U.S. to ensure their children \u2062receive citizenship, \u200bpose notable challenges to taxpayers and highlight the need for \u2064legislative clarity. Critics frequently enough reference the Supreme Court case United States v. Wong kim Ark (1898), which \u2062confirmed citizenship for a child of lawful residents but\u200d does not address the status of children born to undocumented individuals.<\/p>\n<p>Senator \u2063Mike Lee emphasized that Congress has the authority\u2064 to redefine who qualifies as &#8220;subject to the jurisdiction&#8221;\u200b of the U.S., advocating for a system where citizenship is\u200c linked to allegiance and\u2063 legal residency. He argues for legislative action to \u200cuphold the integrity of citizenship, suggesting that it shoudl only apply to those \u200btruly under \u2062U.S. jurisdiction.<\/p>\n<p>The article concludes by asserting that acknowledging the historical significance of the Fourteenth Amendment is vital, advocating for \u200ca principled approach to citizenship that \u2062reflects both allegiance and legal presence, thus preserving \u2064the value \u2064of U.S. <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">citizenship amidst contemporary challenges related<\/a> to immigration. If Congress fails to address this issue, Trump might invoke measures to deny citizenship rights to children born \u200dto parents in sanctuary jurisdictions.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>In his first hours in office, President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order curtailing the practice of unlimited birthright citizenship. Many think the Fourteenth Amendment calls for citizenship for everyone born in America. Left-wing attorneys general in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/21\/us\/trump-birthright-citizenship.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">18 states<\/a> have filed suit to stop the order. But the case isn&rsquo;t as clear cut as some would contend.<\/p>\n<p>At the heart of the debate is this phrase: &ldquo;All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>This central clause raises questions about its application for some children of non-citizens and illegal immigrants. By revisiting the original debates surrounding the amendment&rsquo;s language and reviewing its implications, Trump&rsquo;s call for limiting the scope of birthright citizenship appears reasonable. <\/p>\n<p>Particularly relevant is U.S. Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BasedMikeLee\/status\/1865817012334710961\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mike Lee&rsquo;s response<\/a> on X to what he considered to be deceptive reporting by &ldquo;Meet The Press,&rdquo; noting that they omitted a portion of the amendment to make their point, &ldquo;Meet The Press omits six words about birthright citizenship from the 14th Amendment. The omitted text is set off by asterisks: &lsquo;All persons born &hellip; in the United States, *and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,* shall be citizens of the United States.&rsquo; Those words matter &hellip; Nothing in the Fourteenth Amendment limits Congress&rsquo;s ability to enact legislation limiting birthright citizenship along the lines of what Senator Harry Reid proposed in 1993.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Original Intent: &lsquo;Subject to the Jurisdiction Thereof<\/strong>&lsquo;<\/h2>\n<p>The framers of the Fourteenth Amendment crafted the &ldquo;subject to the jurisdiction&rdquo; clause with specificity. Sen. Jacob Howard, who introduced the Citizenship Clause, explicitly stated that it would exclude children of diplomats, foreign ministers, and others not fully subject to U.S. laws.<\/p>\n<p>This restrictive interpretation aligns with Sen. Lyman Trumbull&rsquo;s clarification that &ldquo;subject to the jurisdiction&rdquo; means &ldquo;complete&rdquo; jurisdiction, not merely physical presence.&rdquo; He noted that the clause excludes those &ldquo;not owing allegiance to anybody else.&rdquo; Thus, it is clear that the amendment intended to deny citizenship to individuals who, by virtue of their parents&rsquo; allegiance to another sovereign, were not entirely under U.S. jurisdiction.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Legislative Precedent and Ambiguity<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>From the outset, American legal practice has balanced <em>jus soli<\/em> (birthright citizenship) with restrictions. The Civil Rights Act of 1866, a precursor to the Fourteenth Amendment, limited citizenship to those &ldquo;not subject to any foreign power.&rdquo; While this language was refined, the principle of allegiance persisted.<\/p>\n<p>The exclusion of Native Americans at the time reinforces this interpretation. Native Americans, though born on U.S. soil, were considered members of sovereign tribal nations and thus outside the scope of the Citizenship Clause. This exclusion persisted until 1924, when Congress extended citizenship through statutory means, further demonstrating that legislative action can refine the scope of citizenship.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Birth Tourism and Border Crossings<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The practice of birth tourism and the deliberate crossing of borders by pregnant women &mdash; a common occurrence in Texas border communities &mdash; to secure U.S. citizenship for their children calls for legislative clarity through statute, something allowed under the Fourteenth Amendment&rsquo;s language. Such practices impose significant burdens on taxpayers, who fund health care, education, and other services for individuals who may not reside in or fully contribute to the U.S. economy &mdash; or even see themselves as owing allegiance to a foreign power.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Mike Lee pointed out that Congress retains the power to define what it means to be &ldquo;subject to the jurisdiction thereof.&rdquo; His December 2024 observations on X emphasize that legislative action could lawfully limit automatic citizenship to children born to U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents. This interpretation aligns with earlier proposals, such as Sen. Harry Reid&rsquo;s 1993 Immigration Stabilization Act, which sought to restrict birthright citizenship to children of U.S. citizens or lawful residents.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Wong Kim Ark&rsquo;s Case and Its Limits<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Critics of a restrictive interpretation often cite <em>United States v. Wong Kim Ark<\/em> (1898), which affirmed the citizenship of a child born in the U.S. to Chinese parents who were lawful residents. However, the court&rsquo;s ruling did not address children of individuals in the country unlawfully or temporarily. Applying this precedent to today&rsquo;s unauthorized immigrants overextends its scope.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, as Justice Scalia remarked in <em>Hamdi v. Rumsfeld<\/em> (2004), such individuals are &ldquo;presumed citizens&rdquo; under current practice but without a definitive constitutional mandate. This ambiguity supports the argument that Congress should act to clarify the matter.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Legislative Action Needed<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>As Lee&rsquo;s analysis emphasizes, Congress has the authority to refine the application of the Citizenship Clause. This power includes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Defining &ldquo;jurisdiction&rdquo; to exclude children born to non-citizens present unlawfully or temporarily.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Ensuring that U.S. citizenship reflects both allegiance and mutual consent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Addressing the modern challenges of illegal immigration and birth tourism in a manner consistent with constitutional principles.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>A Principled Approach to Citizenship<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The Fourteenth Amendment was a strong and needed step toward equality in the aftermath of the Civil War, designed to protect the rights of freed slaves and their descendants. However, its Framers did not foresee today&rsquo;s challenges, including widespread illegal immigration and border exploitation.<\/p>\n<p>By acknowledging the historical intent of the amendment, Congress can ensure that U.S. citizenship remains a meaningful bond of allegiance and responsibility. Limiting automatic birthright citizenship to those truly subject to U.S. jurisdiction &mdash; as defined by allegiance and legal presence &mdash; is not only constitutional but necessary to preserve the integrity of our nation. As Lee aptly noted, &ldquo;Those words matter.&rdquo; It is time we act accordingly.<\/p>\n<p>Should Congress not act, Trump may have an avenue to force the matter, by declaring that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fact-check-democrat-falsely-claims-theres-no-amnesty-in-bidens-build-back-better-act\/\" title=\"Fact Check: Democrat Falsely Claims &#039;There&#039;s No Amnesty&#039; in Biden&#039;s &#039;Build Back Better Act&#039;\">illegal aliens residing<\/a> in so-called sanctuary cities or states are not &ldquo;subject to the jurisdiction&rdquo; of the United States and thus, their children born in a sanctuary jurisdiction do not qualify for birthright citizenship by definition.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<div>\n<p>      Chuck DeVore is chief national initiatives officer at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a former California legislator, and a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel. He&#8217;s the author of <a href=\"\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B0BGNKPTLR\">&ldquo;The Crisis of the House Never United&mdash;A Novel of Early America.&rdquo; <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump&#8217;s order limits birthright citizenship; 18 states sue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":563,"featured_media":2395935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/pexels-brunocurly-19963969.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[46489,36382,34581,3756],"class_list":["post-2395934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-birthright-citizenship","tag-immigration-policy","tag-legal-authority","tag-republicans"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/pexels-brunocurly-19963969.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/563"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2395934"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2395938,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395934\/revisions\/2395938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2395935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2395934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2395934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2395934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}