Latest / INSIGHT TODAY / How the birthright citizenship decision impacts Trump's immigration agenda

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How the birthright citizenship decision impacts Trump's immigration agenda · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: For more on the court birthright citizenship ruling. We're joined
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  Speaker 1: now by Amanda Frost. She's a professor at the University
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: of Virginia School of Law and the author of You
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Are Not American Citizenship, Stripping from dred Scott to the Dreamers.
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  Speaker 1: Her second book on birthright citizenship is due out in September.
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  Speaker 1: Amanda Frost, Welcome back to the News Hour, Thanks for
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  Speaker 1: being with us, Thank you for having me. So the
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  Speaker 1: argument we heard by President Trump against birthright citizenship citizenship
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  Speaker 1: has been that the fourteenth Amendment was intended to be
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  Speaker 1: very limited, just applying to the children of enslaved people.
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  Speaker 1: What did the justices say today about that argument.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so they rejected. The majority rejected that argument.
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  Speaker 3: They said the language, which is universal and application doesn't
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  Speaker 3: limit itself to the enslaved or formerly enslaved, would apply
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  Speaker 3: to everyone. They noted that during the debates over that language,
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  Speaker 3: it explicitly came up whether the language was supposed to
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  Speaker 3: cover the children of Chinese immigrants, and Chinese immigrants at
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  Speaker 3: the time were a very disfavored, unpopular group, and the
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  Speaker 3: answer was yes, it was intended to cover the children
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  Speaker 3: of Chinese immigrants. So the reading of the citizenship clause
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  Speaker 3: is just applying to the formerly enslaved is wrong. Of course,
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  Speaker 3: it applied to them, and that was a major infetus
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  Speaker 3: for the decision, but it was not limited to them.
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  Speaker 1: We saw President Trump react to the ruling by posting
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  Speaker 1: this online and part he wrote that it's too bad
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  Speaker 1: for our country, but we can easily make it up
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  Speaker 1: in Congress through legislation. He went on to say, no
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  Speaker 1: long and unwieldy constitutional amendment is necessary. He's basically saying
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  Speaker 1: he could effectively end birthright citizenship through Congress.
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  Speaker 2: Can he No, that's just wrong.
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  Speaker 3: The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law
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  Speaker 3: of the land. On the first day of law school,
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  Speaker 3: you learn, if you didn't know it already, that legislation
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  Speaker 3: that violates the Constitution is invalid.
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  Speaker 2: So this executive order is invalid because it violates.
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  Speaker 3: The US Constitution, said five justices, and any legislation in
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  Speaker 3: Congress past would similarly be invalid.
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  Speaker 1: I want to put to you another thing we heard
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  Speaker 1: during this debate, which was an opponents of birthright citizenship
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  Speaker 1: talk about the incentives it provides to illegal immigrants, and
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  Speaker 1: we also heard a lot about birth tourism. How prevalent
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  Speaker 1: is that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so a couple points about that.
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  Speaker 3: One is, even anti immigration groups estimate birth tourism to
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  Speaker 3: be fairly low, a small percentage of the overall births.
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  Speaker 3: But I understand that it defends certain groups or maybe
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  Speaker 3: a lot of people, and the answer is to target that.
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  Speaker 3: And in fact, there's laws on the books that allow
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  Speaker 3: Customs and Border Protection officials to stop people from coming
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  Speaker 3: to the United States on short term visas who are
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  Speaker 3: visibly pregnant and look like they're coming to give birth.
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  Speaker 3: And the question is, you know, should we enforce that
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  Speaker 3: rather than end birthright citizenship for hundreds of thousands of
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  Speaker 3: children born to people who are in the United States
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  Speaker 3: for years. And there's a targeted enforcement mechanism that we
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  Speaker 3: could use to prevent birth tourism. If that's the problem,
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  Speaker 3: we don't need to end birthright citizenship for everybody.
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  Speaker 1: As we reported, the decision was six to three. The
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  Speaker 1: majority was written by Chief Justice John Roberts. Given everything
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  Speaker 1: you know about birthright citizenship, did it surprise you that
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  Speaker 1: three justices would have overturned this one hundred and fifty
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  Speaker 1: year president.
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  Speaker 3: I was a little surprised, in part based on the
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  Speaker 3: oral argument, where we heard more skeptical questions from Justice
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  Speaker 3: Kavanaugh and Justice Gorsic as clear Justice Alito was very
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  Speaker 3: skeptical of birthright citizenship from the oral argument. But I
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  Speaker 3: think the key point here is that you know, by
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  Speaker 3: a vote of six to three, these justices said no,
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  Speaker 3: this signature executive order by President Trump, when he felt
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  Speaker 3: so strongly about the attended the oral argument is invalid
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  Speaker 3: under the Constitution, or Kavanaugh said. Justice Kavanaugh said, under
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  Speaker 3: federal law. Either way, President Trump cannot decide who is
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  Speaker 3: and who is not a citizen.
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  Speaker 1: Unilatterly, you've written so extensively on this topic and on
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  Speaker 1: its history. So after this decision, do you believe that
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  Speaker 1: the constitutional debate over birthrights citizenship has been effectively settled.
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  Speaker 3: I think it's been settled for the time being. I
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  Speaker 3: will say that we continue to have this debate as
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  Speaker 3: a nation over who belongs. And I think there's a
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  Speaker 3: reason for the two hundred pages that the Court wrote,
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  Speaker 3: and that's because they're debating who is an American and
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  Speaker 3: what the meaning of American is. And that's a debate
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  Speaker 3: I think we'll continue to have as a country. But
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  Speaker 3: I'm glad to say that for the time being, hundreds
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  Speaker 3: of thousands of newborn children in the United States will
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  Speaker 3: be secure in their citizenship, and all Americans giving birth
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  Speaker 3: going forward onet have to prove their status to the
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  Speaker 3: federal government's satisfaction, which is what would have happened had
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  Speaker 3: this executive order gone into effect.
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  Speaker 1: That is Amanda Frost, professor at the University of Virginia
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  Speaker 1: School of Law, joining us tonight. Amanda, thank you so
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  Speaker 1: much for your time, good to speak with you.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you.
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