A new court decision on birthright citizenship confirms the earlier Supreme Court decision: the 14th amendment means what it says.
What is the court decision?
President Trump had issues two new executive orders on birthright citizenship. One specified some particular groups of people whose babies should not have birthright citizenship when born in the United States. The other focused on “birth tourism.” This refers to women who come to the United States as tourists near the end of a pregnancy. If their babies are born before they leave the United States, those babies happen to be U.S. citizens. The new executive order says that people who do this intentionally should not be included under the birthright citizenship law.
The Supreme Court struck down an earlier executive order which attempted to limit birthright citizenship. The new executive orders tried to work around that Supreme Court decision. U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman handed down a decision that blocked the new executive orders.
Boardman said the the Supreme Court had “already decided that the children in the class are citizens at birth.” She further wrote that the Supreme Court’s decision “is the law of the land. The President must follow it.”
What does this mean to Puerto Rico?
None of these executive orders says anything about the citizenship of Puerto Ricans. People born in Puerto Rico have had birthright U.S. citizenship since 1917 and none of these orders would change that. The court decisions prevent the problems the medical system in Puerto Rico would probably face if the executive orders had been unchallenged. But that is not the most important point for Puerto Rico.
The continuing efforts to change U.S. citizenship include not only the executive orders but also several laws like the “End Birthright Citizenship in the Territories” Act. These ongoing threats to U.S. birthright citizenship say something important about the federal government. At least some members of that government are willing and eager to make changes that limit U.S. citizenship.
The court decision on birthright citizenship shows that the judicial branch isn’t going along with that idea, but both the legislative and executive branches have shown willingness.
Supporters of independence for Puerto Rico like to say that Puerto Ricans could keep U.S. citizenship under independence. What is there evidence for this claim? There is none. Instead, they say that Congress just wouldn’t take away their citizenship. Congress can rescind Puerto Ricans’ U.S. citizenship at any time. It is not the kind guaranteed by the Constitution. Yet separatists say Congress just wouldn’t do that. Keeping U.S. citizenship, said Rep. Nydia Velazquez, would be the “bare minimum” that the U.S. owes Puerto Rico.
Not that Congress would be prevented by law from refusing U.S. citizenship to citizens of a foreign country — they wouldn’t. Not that the U.S. has a history of allowing citizens of former territories to keep their citizenship — they don’t. Not that countries in free association with the U.S. always get U.S. citizenship — they never do. Nobody can claim these things. Instead, they have to make statements saying that Congress would just be so sentimental that they would permit U.S. citizenship for an entire nation of people who had rejected U.S. sovereignty.
The current fight over birthright citizenship proves that Congress isn’t that sentimental. On.ly statehood guarantees U.S. citizenship for you and your descendants. Reach out to your representatives and make sure they know that U.S. citizenship matters to you, so statehood does, too.
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