Republican State Senator from Arizona Russell Pearce, the driving force behind the horrid new immigration law in the state, has decided that institutionalizing racial profiling in his state isn't enough. He has now decided that he wants to take on the Constitution of the United States.
Senator Pearce intends to push for legislation that would deny citizenship to US-born children of undocumented parents:
A Phoenix news station (KPHO) is reporting that the state Senator behind Arizona’s new immigration law, Russell Pierce [sic] (R), does not intend on stopping at SB-1070. In e-mails obtained by the local CBS affiliate, Pearce said he intends to push for an “anchor baby” bill that would essentially overturn the 14th amendment by no longer granting citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants born on U.S. soil.
For those less familiar with the 14th amendment, the relevant section reads as follows:
Section 1.
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.
Now, Senator Pearce thinks that his move to deny citizenship to American-born children is constitutional, based entirely on the phrase "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" in that amendment. And in an email to a constituent obtained by KPHO, Senator Pearce makes the case that since Native Americans originally were not granted citizenship, and since children of diplomats are not citizens even if born in the United States, then he has grounds to argue that American-born children are not automatically American citizens.
Senator Pearce is also a complete toolbox without the faintest knowledge of constitutional law.
Until an Act of Congress in 1924 gave all Native Americans the rights of citizenship, they were originally denied that right because they were not originally seen as being born in US soil, as the 1884 Supreme Court case Elk v Wilkins demonstrates.
Meanwhile, the 1898 case United States v. Wong Kim Ark demonstrated without reservation that an American-born child of foreign parents was automatically a United States citizen, even if those parents were in the country illegally. Wong Kim Arm was born in San Francisco, returned with his family to China for a time, and then sought to re-enter the United States, where he was denied because of the Chinese Exclusion Acts. He sued, and the Supreme Court sided with him, ruling that the 14th Amendment applied to him even though his parents were "subjects of the Emperor of China."
And guess what that ruling has a special exception for? Children of foreign diplomats:
That, at the time of his said birth, his mother and father were domiciled residents of the United States, and had established and enjoyed a permanent domicil and residence therein at said city and county of San Francisco, State aforesaid.
That said mother and father of said Wong Kim Ark continued to reside and remain in the United States until the year 1890, when they departed for China.
That during all the time of their said residence in the United States as domiciled residents therein, the said mother and father of said Wong Kim Ark were engaged in the prosecution of business, and were never engaged in any diplomatic or official capacity under the Emperor of China.
Senator Pearce: You are not only a raging racist, you are also a raging idiot. Please stop trying to cite constitutional law. You're just making it ugly on yourself.