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: 1055
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.'

Fair enough: test it out. That's what Trump has said he's going to do, so once he's elected he'll do that: he'll test it.

And once the Supreme Court rules that the 14th Amendment means that anchor babies are natural born Americans, he will say "Ok, we tried that."

The Constitution will be too hard to amend. He can start that process too, but he won't succeeded at that either.

What he can succeed at is getting a Border barrier up, getting troops on the Border, speeding up deportations, hitting employers of illegals hard. and causing a lot of people to self-deport.

So that's what he'll do. And it will work. It will drastically reduce the illegal population. And then the constitutional amendment won't be needed.

We have to actually deploy our troops at the ports, airports and borders, and instead of sniffing out drug crime, sniff out the economic crime of hiring illegals. THAT will suffice, and succeed.

That, in turn, will drive up wages for working class people across America. For now employers will no longer dare hire illegals. They'll have to hire Americans, with benefits. That will increase the tax base and increase consumer spending, while cutting the cost of services (because people will be working, not on welfare).

He'll go for the easy win on anchor babies, but the win won't come that way. It will be a loss, 9-0. Then he'll win on another battlefield.

Of the 11 million illegals, 4 million of them are "anchor babies". Deporting 7 million illegal adults would be a great start, and many would take their "anchor babies" with them voluntarily.

Those 4 million anchor babies are US citizens who can come back…undereducated…

It would be better to stop the flow, stop the employment, and then deal with much greater circumspection as regards the families of American citizens, though here illegally. It is cheaper to live in Mexico, and kids can be educated there well, with resources. It is in the interests of the United States to provide resources (that will go a long way in Mexico) towards getting a good education for each of our anchor-baby citizens dwelling over there with their parents.

As long as we stop the flow, there will be a fixed size sinking pool set of such children, who will come of age, over time, move back to the US, over time, with education and skills, and eventually be able to bring their retired parents over.

We do not have to go mental about this collection of people. We have to stop the flow so that the problem doesn't get worse and worse. Then we can treat the existing people who are citizens, and their families, in a way that does not hurt our national brainpower in the long run. 4 million citizens have to be educated, or they'll end up a burden. Cheaper to educate them in Mexico.

I'm saying we can deport 7 million illegal adults without violating the constitution. That leaves 4 million anchor babies who are American citizens by birth. I'm estimating half of them will voluntarily leave with their parents.

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.