Asians were the original target of stripping birthright citizenship

Asians were the original target of stripping birthright citizenship

I was an anchor baby in 1958 when my parents came from China as immigrant students. They weren't citizens, but when I was born, I was automatically a citizen, and they could claim to be related to a US citizen to get their citizenship. Now I'm not that dead set against disallowing birth citizenship when neither parent is in this country legally. But here is an interesting piece on George Mason University's History News Network which seems to walk a fine balance between left and right. The interesting point is that it was the case of a Chinese that enshrined this right in the first place, and it was objections to Asians that sparked earlier attempts to restrict or get rid of birthright citizenship. I got this tip from the Adam Holland blog (who is a pro-Israel conservative as well as myself)

Repealing Birthright Citizenship Wasn't a Good Idea Back in the Forties Either


By Greg Robinson
 
Read it about it here: http://www.hnn.us/articles/130165.html and here is a short clip:

Our nation’s history demonstrates that birthright citizenship is a precious resource for nonwhite Americans, especially those of Asian ancestry, to protect against racial prejudice. Until the Second World War most Asian immigrants were excluded from entering the United States. Those who did come (of whom many would today be deemed “illegal immigrants”) were barred by federal law from naturalization. Under pressure from white nativists, Western states (including Arizona) enacted discriminatory laws against “aliens ineligible to citizenship” to eliminate their economic competition and stigmatize them as undesirable. However, in 1898 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Wong Kim Ark, a young Chinese American, and thereby enshrined the principle of automatic birthright citizenship for all native-born persons. American-born citizens of Chinese, Japanese, and other Asian groups, unlike their parents, were able to hold property and vote, and so were less vulnerable to official bias. In response, frustrated West Coast whites repeatedly attacked the principle of birthright citizenship for children of “ineligible” aliens