COL. ALLEN WEST: Birthright Citizenship Was Always About Former Slaves, Not Illegal Aliens (EXCLUSIVE)
by Victoria Manning
The purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment was to give rightful citizenship to Black Americans, not illegal alien criminals.
Col. Allen West
Congress ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1868 to provide citizenship to black Americans freed from slavery after the Civil War—not to the children of illegal aliens. For decades, unelected bureaucrats have carelessly redefined it to grant birthright citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil with little pushback from Republicans.
Now there’s a new elected sheriff in town—Donald Trump—and he’s fixing that egregious and cynical mistake for good.
“The facts are clear about the 14th Amendment—it was never meant to give illegal immigrants citizenship, but right a wrong left over from the Civil War,” executive director of the American Constitutional Rights Union and former Congressman Col. Allen West, USA-Ret. told Restoration News.
"The 14th Amendment's original intent was to grant citizenship to the Blacks in America who had just been made free by the 13th Amendment,” Col. West explained in a recent Townhall column. “Remember again that the Democrats did not support either of these amendments then."
On the Record
The congressional record is an archive of legislator debate on bills in Congress. Originalist justices will use these historical deliberations to determine the intent of those who enacted the laws of the land. That history proves illegal aliens aren't included in the citizenship clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In fact, the term "birthright citizenship" isn't found anywhere in the Constitution.
On May 30, 1866, Michigan Sen. Jacob Howard (R) submitted language to the Fourteenth Amendment proposal declaring, "All persons born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the States wherein they reside." He further explained:
This amendment which I have offered is simply declaratory of what I regard as the law of the land already, that every person born within the limits of the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, is by virtue of natural law and national law a citizen of the United States. This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the Government of the United States, but will include every other class of persons. It settles the great question of citizenship and removes all doubt as to what persons are or are not citizens of the United States.
Sen. Howard made it very clear as the author of this language that it did not include children born to non-citizens.
Most of the debate surrounding Howard's amendment regarded whether Indians would be citizens. The consensus seemed that Indians who operated under treaties would not be included—nor would their children—since they were not subject to the full jurisdiction of the federal government. It wasn't until 1924 under the Indian Citizenship Act that Indians gained citizenship. If lawmakers didn't believe Indians were included in the Fourteenth Amendment, they certainly didn't intend for foreign citizens to have birthright citizenship.
During the debate, Maryland Sen. Reverdy Johnson (D) said, "I know of no better way to give rise to citizenship than the fact of birth within the territory of the United States, born of parents who at the time were subject to the authority of the United States." Further debate included discussions that "subject to the authority" meant full authority—for example, not subject to deportation.
Democrat Delaware Sen. Willard Saulsbury, Sr. claimed: "I do not presume that any one [sic] will pretend to disguise the fact that the object of this first section is simply to declare that negroes shall be citizens of the United States."
It's very clear throughout the entire congressional record of discussions, the purpose of the amendment was to confer citizenship to recently emancipated Black Americans.
Remember that the same Democrat Party that opposed the abolition of slavery also opposed the Fourteenth Amendment, with Democrat President Andrew Johnson vocally against its passage. Opposition continued in 1870 when House Democrats voted unanimously against a resolution declaring the Fourteenth Amendment to be valid. The Democrats lost that vote, too, but made it clear they didn't want Black Americans to have the same freedoms as others.
(READ MORE: Allen West—Trump Ended Biden's Tyranny Against Heroic Veterans)
States Violate the Constitution
Earlier this month, Reagan administration Attorney General Edwin Meese filed an amicus brief with the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts over a birthright citizenship case targeting President Trump. Meese reiterates that "birthright citizenship was intended to apply only to individuals who are fully subject to the political jurisdiction of the United States. This excludes children born to parents who are neither citizens nor lawful permanent residents."
Meese also points out that both the congressional record and the Supreme Court in Elk v. Wilkins (1884) specify that a person born in the U.S. who owes allegiance to a foreign country wouldn't be a citizen under the Fourteenth Amendment. The courts emphasized full political jurisdiction is required for citizenship. If a child is born to a foreign citizen, they are subject to another government so do not qualify for birthright citizenship.
It wasn't courts or legislation that wrongly interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment to bestow citizenship on anyone born in the U.S.—it was the unelected administrative state reinterpreting the Constitution to fit their desires.
Who determines citizenship of babies born in the United States? It appears to be as simple as obtaining a state issued birth certificate from the state vital statistics department. This is an example of how an illegal alien parent can get a birth certificate for a baby born in Virginia:
Give birth to a baby in Virginia.
File a form with the Virginia Department of Health that includes full name and date of birth, place of birth, hospital of birth (if any), and parents' names.
Provide identification which can include a state issued ID—Virginia gives IDs to illegal aliens—or even a certificate of birth abroad.
Pay a nominal fee.
These processes are very similar in other states. Once the child has a birth certificate, they can apply for a Social Security Number and retain all the rights and benefits of a child born to U.S. citizens. The child could be the offspring of alien gang members, smugglers, or fentanyl dealers. It’s clearly not what the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment had in mind.
It's admirable that President Trump is challenging this issue after decades of birthright citizenship abuses. Aliens violate America's laws by illegally crossing the border—they shouldn't be rewarded with the golden ticket of citizenship for their children.
