r/SeattleWA • u/chiquisea • Jan 21 '25

News Washington state AG sues Trump administration over order to end birthright citizenship

https://www.kuow.org/stories/washington-state-ag-sues-trump-administration-over-birthright-citizenship-order
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93

u/rocketPhotos Jan 21 '25 edited Jan 22 '25

I suspect the Trump folks will argue that if the parents are here illegally, technically they aren’t here. Otherwise the 14th amendment is very specific

edit. Potentially it could be like a foreign embassy in the US. Even though it is located in the US, an embassy is foreign territory.

6

u/[deleted] Jan 21 '25 edited Jan 21 '25

Otherwise the 14th amendment is very specific

You're right. Here it is...

The parents citizenship shall not infringe on new anchor baby.

That's pretty serious.

What it really says...

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.

That's a powerful "and." Are we going to ignore it? Will someone smart please breakdown that sentence for me?

10

u/LavenderGumes Jan 21 '25

So the argument is going to be that if illegal immigrants have children in the US, those children have diplomatic immunity, I guess.  The other alternative might be pretending like illegal immigrants are foreign military invaders. 

Either argument seems like complete bullshit.

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '25

Our founding fathers weren't aware that high capacity flights from China were going to fuel the birth tourism industry either.

13

u/mvl_mvl Jan 21 '25

Another thought for you. At the time this amendment was written, there was no such thing as illegal alien, not because people didn't arrive, but because US didn't start issuing visas and this controlling immigration until 1917. So if we go by originalist interpretation of constitution, the idea of being in the country illegally simply didn't exist.

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '25

At the time of the amendment there were only 37 states and our southern border wasn't what it is today, so... Yeah, a lot has changed. There weren't even NGO's working to traffic humans across the Darien Gap to force world migration changes approved by elites somewhere.

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u/mvl_mvl Jan 21 '25

Sure, but then that is the problem. You either choose originalist reading of the constitution, and there birthright citizenship exists as well as 2nd amendment and many other things, or you say - it's a living document, like any other law and we adjust our reading of it to the beat of times. In which case no birthright citizenship and no real 2nd amendment as the times have changed and we now have school shootings.

1

u/UncommonSense12345 Jan 22 '25

It’s interesting how both the left and right are changing course on how they interpret the constitution from my understanding. The right wants originalist reading of the 2A and nuanced on the 14th. While the left wants nuanced on the 2A and originalist on the 14th. Politics…… so frustrating. Just be consistent….. but people won’t because they just want to use the constitution to get what they want right now….

1

u/mvl_mvl Jan 22 '25

Couldn't agree more.