#citizenship
“Detritus is a citizen of Ankh-Morpork and my sergeant,” said Vimes.
“However, he is a troll. Perhaps in the interests of diplomacy you could write a short–”
“DoIneed a pisspot?”
“A passport…no, Your Grace.”
“Then he doesn’t either.”
“Nevertheless, Your Grace–”
“There is nonevertheless.”
“But it may not be advisable to–”
“There’s no advisable either.”
A few other guards had drifted over. Vimes was aware of watching eyes.
“He could be ejected by force,” said Inigo.
“Nowthere’san experiment I wouldn’t want to miss,” said Vimes.
Detritus made a rumbling noise. “I don’t mind goin’ back if–”
“Shut up, Sergeant. You’re a free troll. That’s an order.”
Terry Pratchett, The Fifth Elephant
When people band together and use their citizenship, the citizen is the most powerful institution there is. Most people don’t really realize that, and there is an interest in maintaining that ignorance. No other institution has a greater interest in maintaining that interest than Political Parties.
Political parties are dedicated to themselves. The party, whichever one it is, is the top of…
President Trump has announced that he plans an executive order that would remove the right to citizenship for babies of noncitizens and unauthorized immigrants born on U.S. soil.
The 14th Amendment became part of the U.S. Constitution 150 years ago in July of 1868. Among other things, it enshrined our traditional common law practice of granting citizenship to those born in the United States who are subject to its laws-specifically it guaranteed that the recently freed slaves and their descendants would be citizens. The 14th Amendment also applied to the children of immigrants, as its authors and opponents understood at the time.
Released earlier this year, President Trump’s immigration position paper, however, famously endorsed an end to birthright citizenship. Michael Anton, a former national security official in the Trump administration as well as a lecturer and researcher at Hillsdale College, has argued that President Trump should use his pen and his phone to exclude the children born here to noncitizens, with little thought of what would happen were such a policy enacted.
Taking Anton’s advice would do grievous harm to our country, destroy one of the finest legacies of the Republican Party, and overturn centuries of Anglo-American common law in exchange for a citizenship system that would slow assimilation.
In addition to being constitutionally questionable, such an order would harm all Americans, not just the children or grandchildren of noncitizens.
Birthright citizenship is good for the United States. It guarantees that everyone who is born in America believes that they are Americans, which is the single best policy for promoting assimilation.