Fox News host Bill Hemmer complained earlier today on America’s Newsroom that birthright citizenship is a loophole when dealing with immigration, even though it’s burned into the U.S. Constitution.
The discussion about birthright citizenship started when Fox News played a video clip of Donald Trump discussing his desires to do away with birthright citizenship via executive order on Meet the Press this past Sunday
HEMMER: Take it to Congress too.
MCENANY: Yeah, you heard him say if we can. That’s because birthright citizenship is enshrined in the 14th Amendment. Not only that, in 1898 in a Supreme Court case called Wong Kim Ark they upheld birthright citizenship. In other words, there is constitutional precedent, there’s Supreme Court precedent. You can try via executive action but I think there are going to be some very big court hang-ups that might not go the way of the administration on birthright citizenship.
HEMMER: It’s been a loophole when it comes to immigration.
PERINO: Yeah. Oh, it is. And I’ve gone back and forth because I love the Constitution! I’m an originalist. But then I also want — I would love to hear what this court thinks about that. Because they are originalists when it comes to the Constitution and see if that precedent would hold up.
The Supreme Court upheld the 14th amendment, but knowing this kangaroo Supreme Court anything’s possible. Still, it would take a Constitutional convention and amendment to undo the 14th amendment
NPR:
The 14th Amendment holds that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” Most legal scholars take that as an explicit protection of birthright citizenship — and think it will take much more than an executive order to change that.
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Most legal scholars say the Supreme Court settled this debate more than a century ago, holding that “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” refers to anyone present in the U.S., except for the children of diplomats and enemy soldiers (and, at the time, Native Americans).
