The Left will fight hard to continue incentivizing illegal, anchor-baby immigration. Given the exodus of voters from their party, they are more intent than ever on building a permanent underclass of government-dependent voters on whom they can count.
But if the case is decided rationally, on the basis of clearly-stated Constitutional provision, statutory law and judicial precedent, "anchor-baby" migration - and the criminal-cartel-driven human trafficking industry spawned by it - will soon be a thing of the past.
The civil rights act of 1866 (reenacted 1870) defines as citizens all persons born on US soil and not subject to a foreign power.
In 1868, the 14th Amendment was enacted. It carried the same definition but worded it differently -"... born on US soil and subject to the jurisdiction of..."
In both statements, the condition placed on so-called "birthright" citizenship is that the person NOT be a citizen of another country. For this reason, the US-born children of foreign diplomats or other people temporarily (and legally) present people are not granted automatic citizenship - they are citizens of their parents' nation.
In the 1890 case of Kim Wok Ark, SCOTUS clarified that a child of legally-present PERMANANT residents was eligible for automatic citizenship because the parents, although not citizens of the US, were here legally and permanently AND were not in any practical capacity subject to the Emperor of China. Leftists use this case to argue in favor of incentivizing illegal, anchor-baby migration.
But that is a grotesque warp.
The key feature of the US v Wong Kim Ark decision was its CONSITENCY with existing Constitutional and statutory law - the finding was that the parents of Kim Wok Ark (and she, by extension) were NOT SUBJECT TO A FOREIGN POWER and so her US birth made her eligible for citenship.
Although the law seems clear, Leftist administrations have muddied the waters by creating an illicit incentive for pregnant migrants to enter the US illegally. We now need fresh adjudication of the issue in order to discontinue this dangerous, corrupt and corrosive practice.
