When Birthright Citizenship was last "Reconsidered": REGAN v. KING and Asian Americans Part II

Before I go on to speak about Regan, a little recap on the current situation may be in order: In April 2010 the state of Arizona enacted a law that, among other provisions, required police to determine the immigration status of those whom they lawfully stopped, in case they were in the country illegally. It also made it a state crime for immigrants not to carry documents, thus placing on them the burden of proof that they were present legally in the United States. While the Arizona law formally forbade racial profiling in the search for illegal immigrants, its understood target is Hispanics, who comprise the vast majority of the state’s immigrants. These central provisions of the Arizona law were challenged by the Obama administration. In July 2010 the central provisions of the law were blocked by U.S. District Court judge Susan Bolton, and the state is enjoined from enforcing them during its appeal.  The controversy over the law testifies to the existence of an ugly anti-immigrant mood in the country. Indeed, even in its initial form, which permitted racial profiling, the Arizona law was widely hailed by commentators and public opinion polls across the country, and legislators in other states began drawing up similar legislation.  

One byproduct of the Arizona legal campaign and the demonizing of immigrants has been a backlash over citizenship. In July 2010 Arizona state senator Russell Pearce proposed a new state statute to strip citizenship from the children of illegal aliens. Legal commentators immediately responded that such a law would be blatantly unconstitutional under the 14^th Amendment, which provides that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens. Rather than derailing the idea, the constitutional argument only inflamed it. In the following weeks, leading Republicans began to call for repeal or reinterpretation of the Amendment’s provisions, beginning with US Senators John Kyl of Arizona and Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, and then Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell. On August 3^rd, 2010, McConnell called for hearings on repealing birthright citizenship. Along with Kyle and Graham, he pointed to the supposed practice of foreign couples traveling to the US to give birth, in order to endow their children with US Citizenship.  (In fact such visits are rare, for the very good reason that they are not of immediate benefit to the parents--children can not sponsor their relatives for legal residency before they turn 21). On August 3^rd, 2010, Five days later, House Minority Leader John Boehner joined McConnell, stating that he was open to either amending the U.S. Constitution or the interpretation of its provisions. "In certain parts of our country, clearly our schools, our hospitals are being overrun by illegal immigrants -- a lot of whom came here just so their children could become U.S. citizens."