corporationsarepeople:

ralfmaximus:

tomatomutato:

evergreennightmare:

official-texan:

audreyii-fic:

[source]

like make them leave because they aren’t here legally?

nope! they’re already doïng that to citizens who were born in the u.s.

so it’s clearly something worse that they “need” to do this for

That’s because “born in the U.S.” was believe it or not, never supposed to apply to children of illegal immigrants. Is this a game? Like, we have a government that is allowed to enforce borders, but if you slip through the cracks and have a baby here you “score” and win citizenship, and there’s nothing we can do about it? Why would that ever be the case?

It’s been the law since 1857 when they tried to strip African Americans of citizenship because their parents were born in Africa:

The policy stems from the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, stating “[a]ll 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,” and was meant to override the 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford decision that denied African Americans citizenship.

tl;dr: The only people who dislike the Birthright Citizenship clauses are racists.

It was also further settled in 1898 in US vs. Wong Kim Ark.

In that case, the Supreme Court clarified that anyone born in the US, and “subject to the jurisdiction of its laws,” is a citizen. In other words, the only people not automatically granted citizenship upon birth are “children born of alien enemies in hostile occupation, and children of diplomatic representatives of a foreign state,” because they aren’t subject to US law.

It’s clear. And it was made clear on purpose.