Todd Blodgett Opinion: Trump can boot humans born in USA, end Birthright Citizenship

Yes, Trump CAN end Birthright Citizenship, by Todd Blodgett

Native Americans – then called ‘Indians’ – first became US citizens in 1924, when Congress passed and Calvin Coolidge signed The Indian Citizenship Act. But that law would’ve been unnecessary if the fourteenth amendment automatically conveyed citizenship to anyone born in the US, regardless of circumstances. Concerning birthright citizenship, most judges, bureaucrats and politicians are wrong and have been, for decades – not unlike those who said the earth was flat, until the Greek mathematician Eratosthenes proved otherwise. Many people falsely think the 14th amendment automatically confers citizenship to everyone born on US soil, but its framers made it explicitly clear that wasn’t their intent, and they’d be appalled at conferring automatic citizenship to children born here to illegal aliens. Via misinterpreted court rulings and executive fiat, amendment #14 has been misapplied for decades. President Trump is correct to end this travesty with his executive order.

Supporters of the erroneous, automatic-citizenship view ignore the amendment’s text, legislative history and intent. The fourteenth amendment was ratified in 1868, to ensure citizenship to freed former slaves and their children. But it does NOT state that all who are born on US soil are automatically citizens.

Rather, it states that citizens are “all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof”. So, just because someone is IN the US doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve subjected themselves “to the jurisdiction” OF the US – which, if so, would convey citizenship to the offspring of diplomats, tourists and illegals. What this widely misinterpreted/misapplied qualifying phrase references is the political allegiance of individuals and the jurisdiction a foreign government holds over them. Just because illegals are subject TO our laws, courts, etc., does NOT place them within US political “jurisdiction”, under the wording defined by the 14th amendment’s authors. As Senator Lyman Trumbull – who played a major role in writing and adopting it – correctly stated: “subject to jurisdiction” of the US means not owing allegiance to any other nation. That said, Illegal aliens’ allegiance is to their country of origin, not to the nation which they illicitly entered, where they’re non-citizens. Accordingly, the same applies to their children who were born on US soil.

The US Supreme court ruled in 1872 that the above qualifying phrase specifically meant to exclude “children of ministers, consuls, and citizens or subjects of foreign states born within the United States.” That ruling was reinforced and confirmed in 1884, in ‘Elk vs Wilkins’ – which denied US citizenship to a Native American, because he owed “immediate allegiance” to his tribe, and not to the U.S. Americans didn’t willingly or knowingly adopt birthright citizenship. Effectively, some were hoodwinked into thinking it’s somehow required constitutionally, by liberal journalists, subversive law professors, Leftist State Department bureaucrats, arrogant Judges and elected officials who were/are either ignorant, dumb, or connivingly deceitful. But birthright citizenship attracts illegals like pizza, ice cream and soda pop attract Rosie O’Donnell; until it ceases, Americans will continue to suffer. We don’t need more citizens; our government simply must better serve the needs of our existing citizens. Remember: decades of wrongful, unlawful misapplication and misinterpretation have caused this costly mess, which President Trump’s executive order can resolve.

Presidential duties, after all, include defending the Constitution and PROPERLY enforcing our laws. Trump’s executive order creates NO new law; it simply ensures proper enforcement of existing law. And if the US Supreme Court tries to block him, Mr. Trump can cite bipartisan, historical precedent: Presidents of both parties – Democrat Andrew Jackson and Republican Abe Lincoln – ignored US Supreme Court rulings that they opposed. So can Donald Trump.

Todd Blodgett, the acclaimed author of ‘REPUBLICAN CRACKHEAD’, served on the Reagan-Bush White House staff and worked for the Republican National Committee and the FBI. He lives in Clear Lake, Iowa and Tyler, Texas. Mr. Blodgett can be reached at his website.