BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP: A CONSTITUTIONAL GUARANTEE BY ELIZABETH WYDRA
This article discusses the preservation of citizenship-by-birthright according to the 14th Amendment, including the children of undocumented parents.
Since its ratification in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment has guaranteed that “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.” Just a decade before this language was added to our Constitution, the Supreme Court held in Dred Scott that persons of African descent could not be citizens under the Constitution. Our nation fought a war at least in part to repudiate the terrible error of Dred Scott and to secure, in the Constitution, citizenship for all persons born on U.S. soil, regardless of race, color, or ancestry.
Against the backdrop of prejudice against newly freed slaves and various immigrant communities such as the Chinese and Gypsies, the Reconstruction Framers recognized that the promise of equality and liberty in the original Constitution needed to be permanently established for people of all colors; accordingly, the Reconstruction Framers chose to constitutionalize the conditions sufficient for automatic citizenship. Fixing the conditions of birthright citizenship in the Constitution—rather than leaving them up to constant revision or debate—befits the inherent dignity of citizenship, which should not be granted according to the politics or prejudices of the day
The Immigrant Divide: How Cuban Americans Changed the U.S. and Their Homeland by Susan Eckstein, released on May 19, 2009 (Routledge)
Are all immigrants from the same home country best understood as a homogeneous group of foreign-born? Or do they differ in their adaptation and transnational ties depending on when they emigrated and with what lived experiences?
Between Castro's rise to power in 1959 and the early twenty-first century more than a million Cubans immigrated to the United States. While it is widely known that Cuban émigrés have exerted a strong hold on Washington policy toward their homeland, Eckstein uncovers a fascinating paradox: the recent arrivals, although poor and politically weak, have done more to transform their homeland than the influential and prosperous early exiles who have tried for half a century to bring the Castro regime to heel. The impact of the so-called New Cubans is an unintended consequence of the personal ties they maintain with family in Cuba, ties the first arrivals oppose.
This historically-grounded, nuanced book offers a rare in-depth analysis of Cuban immigrants' social, cultural, economic, and political adaptation, their transformation of Miami into the "northern most Latin American city," and their cross-border engagement and homeland impact. Eckstein accordingly provides new insight into the lives of Cuban immigrants, into Cuba in the post Soviet era, and into how Washington's failed Cuba policy might be improved. She also posits a new theory to deepen the understanding not merely of Cuban but of other immigrant group adaptation. top of page
FOR IMMIGRATION ATTORNEYS ONLY: WHAT'S NEW IN IMMIGRATION LAW that I had better know?:
Normally, this section of the newsletter discusses a recent development in immigration law. In this month's FOR IMMIGRATION ATTORNEYS ONLY, we would like to alert immigration attorneys to an excellent advisory just updated by the American Immigration Lawyers Foundation (AILF).
The advisory, by Trina Realmuto contains practical and legal suggestions for attorneys representing clients who have prevailed on a petition for review or other legal action and who are outside of the United States. In general, these clients are outside the United States either because the court of appeals and/or Board of Immigration Appeals denied their request for a stay of removal or the person chose to leave the country. The advisory is divided into five steps: formulating a return plan; contacting opposing counsel to propose the return plan; determining litigation forum and format; articulating litigation arguments; and obtaining payment by or attorney fees from the government.
To view processing times and your case status, click one of the links below to connect to the correct U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services information page.
Published by the Law Offices of Curtis Pierce, 213-327-0044.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this newsletter is analysis and commentary of a general nature. Nothing in this newsletter applies to a specific case nor does it constitute legal advice.
Schedule appointment: For legal advice on your case, please schedule an appointment with Curtis Pierce, Certified Specialist, Immigration & Nationality Law, The State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization.
“The only title in our democracy superior to that of President (is) the title of citizen”.
Former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis. (In the case Ng Fung Ho v. White, 259 U.S. 276, 284 (1922), Justice Brandeis wrote that deportation can deprive an individual of "life, or of all that makes life worth living.")
In the words of President Kennedy,
the United States is a "nation of immigrants."
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