An Informative Look at the History of Birthright Citizenship in the United States

Vox editor Adam Freelander took an in-depth and unbiased look into Birthright Citizenship in the United States, which happens to be the first section of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

This amendment was ratified in 1858 in order to rectify the rights of the former slaves and give them proper citizenship.

The short answer is that birthright citizenship in the US came about as a way of granting citizenship after the American Civil War to the large population of formerly enslaved Black people. But that raises a different question: How did a law intended for Black Americans end up creating hundreds of thousands of new US citizens born to immigrant parents every year?

The definition was further extended when the son of Chinese immigrants left the country and was denied entry upon return. This case, United States vs. Wong Kim Ark, went all the way up to the Supreme Court. The court determined that any person born in the United States, even if their parents were excluded from citizenship through the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, was automatically a citizen.

When Wong was born here, to his Chinese immigrant parents who were not US citizens, was he under the jurisdiction of, and thus a citizen of, the place he was born? Or was he a citizen of the place his parents were from? In 1898, the court makes their decision. Wong Kim Ark is a citizen.

Of course, there was dissension at the time, as there is now. This is not a new argument, although to some, the case should have been settled by now.

Today, just like back then, the President is someone who doesn't agree that birthright citizenship should apply to everyone. Even though, to be clear, a majority of Americans think it should. And, once again, it seems like the final call will be up to the US Supreme Court, which, for more than 100 years, has recognized, again and again, that birthright citizenship is the law.