LF: Trump vows to use the courts to challenge citizenship of 'anchor babies' as he pitches aggressive immigration proposals

Title: Trump vows to use the courts to challenge citizenship of 'anchor babies' as he pitches aggressive immigration proposals
Source: Daily Mail Online
URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art ... ive-immigration-proposals.html
Published: Aug 19, 2015
Author: David Martosko, US Political Editor
Post Date: 2015-08-19 16:11:09 by cranky
Keywords: None
Views: 1157
Comments: 5

Donald Trump dropped an immigration bombshell Tuesday night during a Fox News Channel interview by saying that as president he would challenge the ancient U.S. doctrine that 'anchor babies' born in America are automatically citizens regardless of where their parents are from.

'What happens is, they're in Mexico, they're going to have a baby, they move over here for a couple of days, they have the baby,' Trump told host Bill O'Reilly, adding that like-minded attorneys have advised him that 'It’s not going to hold up in court, it’s going to have to be tested.'

'I don't think they have American citizenship, and if you speak to some very, very good lawyers, some would disagree,' Trump added.

'But many of them agree with me: You're going to find they do not have American citizenship.'

CONSTITUTIONAL SCHOLAR: Donald Trump insists the question of 'birthright citizenship' is open to interpretation

NO SPIN ZONE: 'I can quote it!' Fox host Bill O'Reilly yelled at Trump on Tuesday, referring to the Constitution's language – 'You want me to quote you the amendment? If you're born here you're a citizen. Period!'

The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution seems unambigious. '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,' its opening reads.

It was crafted in the wake of the American Civil War as a means to guarantee citizenship to former black slaves and their children.

THAT PESKY 14TH AMENDMENT

Section 1 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution addresses so-called 'birthright' citizenship, conferred on newborns who enter the world on U.S. soil even if their mothers are citizens of other nations:

'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.'

Trump seems intent on testing whether newborns of today's illegal immigrants are 'subject to the jurisdiction' of the United States, as opposed to their parents' home countries.

O'Reilly insisted the questions has long been settled, and could only be changed by amending the Constitution again.

'I'd much rather find out whether or not anchor babies are citizens, because a lot of people don't think they are. We're going to test it out. That's going to happen, Bill.'

Trump has grabbed headlines since the opening minutes of his presidential campaign with aggressive rhetoric about illegal immigration, including the charge that Mexico's government is 'sending' hardened criminals including 'rapists' into the U.S. rather than incarcerating them.

'We have to start a process where we take back our country,' Trump said Tuesday night. 'Our country is going to hell.'

He advocated, as he has in past months, for an uncompromising system of deportations following the construction of a 'big, beautiful wall' on America's southern border.

'When people are illegally in the country, they have to go,' he said. 'Now, the good ones – there are plenty of good ones – will work, so it's expedited. We can expedite it where they come back in, but they come back legally.'

O'Reilly blasted Trump for imagining 'federal police kicking in the doors in barrios around the country dragging families out and putting them on a bus' out of the country.

'I can quote it!' he yelled, referring to the constitutional language. 'You want me to quote you the amendment? If you're born here you're a citizen. Period!'

In the 1898 case of 'United States v. Wong Kim Ark,' the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a child of immigrant Chinese parents was automatically a U.S. citizen if it could be proven the baby was born inside the nation's borders.

STILL MAKING WAVES: Trump, shown Monday outside a New York City courthouse where he had reported for jury duty, has made an aggressive immigration policy the cornerstone of his campaign

The high court rejected an argument that because the child's parents were subject to the jurisdiction of China's emperor, he was outside America's 'jurisdiction.'

The Fourteenth Amendment, the court wrote, 'has conferred no authority upon Congress to restrict the effect of birth, declared by the Constitution to constitute a sufficient and complete right to citizenship.'

That, however, depends on the meaning of the words: 'subject to the jurisdiction thereof.'

Some conservatives have advocated for a simple federal law that would define that phrase.

The Civil Rights Act of 1866, which was written in conjunction with the Fourteenth Amendment, somehow described the requirements for citizenship differently.

In addition to being born on U.S. soil, it required that the children of former black slaves could not be 'subject to any foreign power.'

The Democratic National Committee fired back on Wednesday against a tide of GOP candidates endorsing the idea of ending birthright citizenship.

Pablo Manriquez, the party's Hispanic media director, distributed a memo to media in which he argued that '[a]ttacking and criminalizing children – let alone citizen children born to immigrant parents – is the lowest form of political buffoonery.'

Sorry Donald, the courts have been packed with quibbling subversives demonstrating their complex superior mentality by espousing convoluted arguments supporting an invasion of this country.