Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Take the 14th Amendment for what it Meant then, and We're all Citizens

  Be careful. If are going to interpret who is a citizen based on the Fourteenth Amendment, be ready to consider that everyone is. Yes, that's right: everyone -- including those who sneak across the border in dead of night.
   Them too. Stamp the title, "Citizen," right across each of their foreheads.
  First of all, lets read what it says in the Fourteenth Amendment. "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States." As you finish reading and set it down, you might be thinking that means just the opposite from what I'm saying.
  And, by today's rules, you're right.
  But, we've changed the rules. They weren't the same back then. When the 14th Amendment was written, we had open borders. People weren't restricted from coming here. If you walked across the U.S.-Mexico border and chose to live in the United States, that was your God-given right; No one would think to stop you.
   Being a citizen wasn't a matter of getting those who already lived in this country to accept you. It was a matter of who lived here. Residency was citizenship. Yes, you needed to be naturalized, but that was a formality. I'm guessing you would find few among all those who asked to be naturalized who weren't.
   That was back in the days before deportation was invented, or at least before it was common.
   Then, starting with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the rules began to change. First, we criminalized workers from China, then it wasn't long before we criminalized a lot of others. America changed, immigration changed, and the rules changed. Whereas most everyone was naturalized before this time, a lot of folks no longer were.
   So, if you take the Fourteenth Amendment and read it through the tainted glasses of today, yes, you'll conclude it locks people out. But, if you take the Fourteenth Amendment to mean what it meant back then, we're all citizens.

Note: Blog revised 4/19/18
 

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