End birthright citizenship

Maybe the most laughable canard bleated out by the open borders crowd is, “To eliminate birthright citizenship you’d have to change the Constitution.” But the statement has no basis in reality.

Birthright citizenship can be eliminated by Congress. The clause the border bleaters cling to is: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States … . But in 1868, when the amendment was adopted, there was no restriction on immigration. It didn’t cover Native Americans until 1924, so citizenship has obviously already been changed legislatively.

Then there are the pesky words, “… subject to the jurisdiction thereof …” Senator Lyman Trumbull, an architect of the amendment, said that meant “not owing allegiance to anybody else.” So it certainly wouldn’t apply to Mexican migrants, who wave Mexican flags on California streets all the time. But the final nail in the open borders folks’ coffin is Section 5, which states: "The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article."

The U.S. and Canada are the only major modern countries in the world who still grant birthright citizenship. It’s way past time to change that.

Robert Bennett