US v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898) started the ball rolling. Wong Kim Ark was born in the US to parents who could not, according to international treaty, become US citizens, but who were domiciled in the US.
Plyler v. Doe (1982) pretty much cemented it, finding that a child born to parents in the US illegally is entitled to public education.
I think Wong Kim Ark was wrongly decided, but as Wikipedia says, it's now legal dogma that anybody born in the US is a US citizen. Period.
Simple statute fixes this misconception, and regardless, deport the parents and guess where the kids go?
Simple statute fixes this misconception, and regardless, deport the parents and guess where the kids go?
Thank you for that information.
In the period 1866-1881, multiple ancestors of mine arrived at New York, subjects of Queen Victoria and the Emperor of Germany. They had many children born before they naturalized (and some never did).
When those children applied for passports or registered for the WW I draft, all listed their US Citizen status as “natural born” or “native born”, depending on the language of the form, and their citizenship was never in question.
So, at least in the case of white Irish or Germans, birthright citizenship was recognized by the generation that drafted and administered the XIV amendment.