Free Republic

Among the reasons Donald Trump is president is that his natural political instincts are superior to those of any other current figure. As campaign 2018 entered its final week, Trump seized upon and elevated the single issue that most energizes his populist base and most convulses our media elite. Warning of an "invasion," he pointed to the migrant caravan that had come out of Honduras and was wending its way through Mexico. He then threatened to issue an executive order ending birthright citizenship. As other caravans began to assemble in Central America, Trump said he would send, first 5,200...

The president rolled another flash grenade onto our political stage this week, and it sent the Trump Hate Media into a predictable tizzy. Trump was called a racist - for the umpteenth time - because he said he plans to use an executive order to put an end to birthright citizenship. Birthright citizenship, made possible by the 14th Amendment, is the automatic granting of U.S. citizenship to any Mexican, Chinese, Russian, Kenyan or Martian baby who is born on American soil. I made up the Martian part, though it's probably true. But thanks to a relatively recent and very liberal...

In a story Oct. 31 about Central American migrants traveling in a caravan through southern Mexico, The Associated Press erroneously reported that a woman who gave birth had been 28 weeks pregnant. She was 38 weeks pregnant. A corrected version of the story is below: No buses for now, weary caravan migrants set to resume march Weary Central American migrants in a caravan in southern Mexico have had their hopes dashed as no hoped-for buses materialized to take them hundreds of miles north

Friday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele called President Donald Trump’s proposal to end birthright citizenship via executive order engaging “in stupid at a level that we have never seen before.” Steele said, “It is better from Trump’s perspective to have a base that is angry and mad at someone other than him. It is sort of the 1950s racism that has been reintroduced into the body politic, and he is thriving on that. So, you know, a great jobs number, and wages going up, and tax cuts, and Supreme Court appointment s appointments,...

I watched Judge Andrew Napolitano on the Fox Business Network talk about the jurisdiction clause in the 14th Amendment, specifically, “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” He made the point, as I did in my previous post, that one group of people that this applies to are foreign diplomats. He disagrees with the contention that it should apply to illegal immigrants too. The point he made was that illegal immigrants are indeed subject to the laws of the country. If an illegal robs a bank and gets caught, he will be arrested and prosecuted. Therefore, the Judge concludes, they’re subject...

KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. Critics claim that anyone born in the United States is automatically a U.S. citizen, even if their parents are here illegally. 2. Its original meaning refers to the political allegiance of an individual and the jurisdiction that a foreign government has over that individual. 3. Birthright citizenship has been implemented by executive fiat, not because it is required by federal law or the Constitution. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ What’s the citizenship status of the children of illegal aliens? That question has spurred quite a debate over the 14th Amendment lately, with the news that several states—including Pennsylvania, Arizona, Oklahoma, Georgia,...

Birthright citizenship is mandated by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, and therefore can only be “changed” by constitutional amendment, not by mere executive order or act of Congress, or so the argument goes. That view depends on reading the 14th Amendment as actually mandating automatic citizenship for anyone and everyone born on US soil, no matter the circumstances. Temporary visitors, such as tourists, students and guest workers, can unilaterally confer citizenship on their children merely by giving birth while here, is the claim. That view has given rise to the cottage industry known as “birth tourism.” Worse, under this...

President Trump is making a blunder with his vow to end birthright citizenship. He’d compound the error were he to try to snuff out this constitutional beacon with a mere executive order. I say that not out of hostility to the president. On the contrary, I endorsed him (and voted for him) and agree with most of his major policies, including enforcing our immigration laws. Yet it’s hard to see the logic of curbing legal citizens, which is what ending birthright citizenship would be doing. Our long-term economic problem could yet be lack of enough people. Trump’s vow to end...

Paul Ryan should be focusing on holding the Majority rather than giving his opinions on Birthright Citizenship, something he knows nothing about! Our new Republican Majority will work on this, Closing the Immigration Loopholes and Securing our Border! -- Donald J. Trump, @realDonaldTrump, Twitter, 31 Oct 2018

New Jersey Republican Senate candidate Bob Hugin on President Trump's immigration policy and his Senatorial campaign.

President Trump gave a lengthy interview to Axios, during which he announced his plan to basically annihilate the whole anchor-baby thing, i.e. to issue an executive order aimed at repealing birthright citizenship. This is a very interesting concept, don’t you think? Here’s the Donald: By SG&A Campaigns (Jacqui Irwin for Assembly 2018) This is a yuuge October surprise if you ask me, and the respective idea is probably aimed at boosting the Republican fan base’s enthusiasm for the midterm elections. To make a long story short, Trump said during the interview that: “It was always told to me that you...

... The right to citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil is derived from the Fourteenth Amendment adopted in 1868: “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.” This is the common law doctrine of jus soli, or right of the soil. Opponents of birth citizenship try to obscure this plain meaning by interpreting “subject to the jurisdiction” as applying only to those who owe allegiance to America. Because alien parents owe allegiance to a different sovereign, the argument goes,...

Tuesday on the radio, LevinTV host Mark Levin ripped Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., for his response to President Trump’s statement that he plans to issue an executive order to end birthright citizenship. Ryan claimed the 14th Amendment creates the birthright citizenship and that therefore such an executive order would be unconstitutional. “There’s been no law passed that conveys birthright citizenship onto illegal aliens. There’s been no Supreme Court decision that definitively confers birthright citizenship onto illegal alien children. Nobody’s a hundred percent certain how this came to be. But everybody seems to be a hundred percent certain...

I found this commentary on citizenship interesting, specifically the third paragraph topic of 'subject to the jurisdiction thereof'. ---- “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.” Amendment XIV, Section 1 Teacher's Companion Lesson (PDF) Before the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, citizens of the states were automatically considered citizens of the United States. In 1857, the Dred Scott v. Sanford decision had held that no black of African descent (even a freed black) could be a citizen of the...

“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.” According to a widely repeated Axios interview with President Trump the administration is considering an executive order to eliminate the “Anchor Baby” interpretation within the 14th Amendment focused on “Birthright Citizenship.”If the initial review of the intent is accurate, President Trump would sign an executive order that would remove the right to citizenship for babies of non-citizens and unauthorized immigrants born on U.S. soil. Until the 1960s, the 14th Amendment was...

Senator Chuck Grassley and House Speaker Paul Ryan objected Tuesday to President Trump’s suggestion that he could end birthright citizenship by executive order. “I am not a lawyer but it seems to me it would take a constitutional amendment to change that as opposed to an executive order,” Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee told Iowa’s CBS2. Most legal scholars believe the 14th Amendment to the Constitution provides citizenship to all children born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parents’ legal status. The Amendment states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the...

VANITY: Trump's statement about "the only country in the world" was absolutely correct. Lefties and media are unable to understand a simple sentence. Trump's exact quote on the Axios interview was: “We’re the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States..." Because this quote makes the MSM "feel" uncomfortable, they call it "a lie," even when close reading shows it to be absolutely true. Anything that goes against the leftie hallucinations about the state of the world they automatically call a "lie," ...even...

Finally, a president willing to take on this absurd policy of birthright citizenship. https://t.co/kCa0ko7P76— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) October 30, 2018 The United States is one of two developed countries in the world who grant citizenship based on location of birth. This policy is a magnet for illegal immigration, out of the mainstream of the developed world, and needs to come to an end.— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) October 30, 2018 In addition, I plan to introduce legislation along the same lines as the proposed executive order from President @realDonaldTrump.— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) October 30, 2018

On substance, I believe President Trump is right on birthright citizenship — the 14th Amendment does not require it. I do not believe, however, that the president may change the interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which has been in effect for decades, by executive order, as he is reportedly contemplating. My friend John Eastman explained why the 14th Amendment does not mandate birthright citizenship in this 2015 New York Times op-ed. In a nutshell, the Amendment states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of...

The 4-D chess just never stops with this guy. 😏