Former Rep. Justin Amash explains why President Donald Trump’s interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment is wrong:
There’s a problem with President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order, and it doesn’t take much effort to see it.
The Fourteenth Amendment reads, in relevant part: “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’s odd claim is that a child born in the United States without at least one parent who is a lawful permanent resident or U.S. citizen is not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States.
But this is simply false.
Set aside that Trump’s executive order would affect children whose parents are lawfully but not permanently here, such as those on student or work visas. Let’s look at the “harder” case: the children of illegal immigrants.
It should be obvious that even individuals who are unlawfully present in the United States are “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” “Jurisdiction” is just the applicability of legal authority to them and the potential exercise of state power against them.
People who are unlawfully present in the country can, of course, be charged with crimes, arrested, and subjected to the same legal processes as almost anyone else in the United States. There is not a person who doubts this, least of all someone in the Trump administration.
I include the word “almost” before “anyone else” in the paragraph above because the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” does exclude certain children: mainly the children of foreign diplomats, who, in fact, are generally not subject to U.S. laws. They have immunity that may or may not be waived by their home country.
Full Post by Former Rep. Justin Amash @ Reason https://reason.com/2025/01/24/the-problem-with-trumps-birthright-citizenship-order/
California Libertarian Report 