Birthright Citizenship Before the Nine

Rising fears over Communist China’s abuse of American birthright citizenship will be the backdrop when the Supreme Court on April 1 hears arguments on the question. GOP lawmakers are voicing alarm over a wave of so-called birth tourism to an American territory, the Northern Mariana Islands, from China. “American citizenship is a sacred trust — not a loophole to be exploited,” the lawmakers say. It’s the crux of the case before the Nine.The dispute arose after President Trump reversed America’s posture on granting citizenship to nearly every child born here, no matter the parents’ nationality. That policy is partly due to a legal precedent from 1898, United States v. Wong Kim Ark, holding that a man born here to subjects of China was entitled to citizenship. The ruling was based on the 14th Amendment, designed to ensure that the children of former slaves attained citizenship.Federal law on naturalization, too, largely codifies the concept of birthright citizenship. Mr. Trump sought to change the policy via an executive order. So far, lower courts have failed to endorse the president’s demarche on this head. In December, though, the Nine agreed to take the case of Trump v. Barbara. That decision signaled that the high bench could be open at least to reconsidering the precedent in Wong, which concerned a child of longtime residents. “It’s rare for the Supreme Court to reverse long-held precedents,” these columns have asserted, “but when it does it can signal a seismic change in American political and cultural life.” We also pointed out how “the realities of immigration in the 21st century” could “help bolster the case for revisiting the Wong precedent.” After all, the Wong case was decided at a time when steamships and railroads were the fastest means of international travel.Today’s ease of travel animates concerns raised by Representatives Chip Roy and Tom Tiffany — and 33 other House Republicans — in a letter to State Secretary Marco Rubio and other top officials warning that Beijing could be taking advantage of America’s citizenship policies. China exploits “birthright citizenship,” the lawmakers aver, “to secure long-term influence inside the United States.” They point in particular to the Northern Mariana Islands.Since 2009, the New York Post reports, the territory, northeast of Guam, “has been flooded with so-called ‘birth tourists.’” President Obama had that year imposed a visa waiver program for citizens of China. The policy permits Chinese citizens to visit for as long as 45 days without a visa. Some 1,000 companies, the Post adds, help to facilitate “birth tourism to the Northern Mariana Islands,” along with other American territories and the mainland.The GOP solons say that at least 750,000 and up to 1.5 million Chinese nationals have obtained American citizenship, in part by “exploiting birthright citizenship and immigration parole programs created by the Obama and Biden administrations.” The problem, Mr. Roy avers, is not confined to China: “These programs have served as pipelines to American citizenship for illegal aliens seeking economic opportunity and those who are bad actors.”That’s the context in which the Nine will hear arguments in Barbara. Mr. Trump’s solicitor general argues that the 14th Amendment “confers birthright citizenship only upon those who are both born in the United States” and “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” If the court agrees, it could curb abuses like birth tourism. In Mr. Roy’s appraisal, that is needed to “restore integrity to our immigration system and defend the sovereignty of our Republic.”

Birthright Citizenship Before the Nine

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