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by Tony Ruiz When a Hispanic woman protester walked by me, I noticed that she wore a t-shirt announcing that she was a daughter of immigrants. Being a son of immigrants myself, I stopped to exchange notes with her on our chance of being pulled over by ICE, also known as “gang hunters.” We agreed that we could joke about the possibility, but it was not a laughing matter. Of great concern to many of the protestors was the January 20, 2025, President Trump’s executive order entitled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.” This order alters the current interpretation of the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1, concerning birthright citizenship. That amendment reads: “All persons born or naturalized In the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” President Trump’s order declares that the phase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” excludes persons born under the following conditions:
I am a proud first generation Mexican American U.S. citizen whose parents never applied for citizenship after legally entering the U.S. from Mexico just before World War I. They registered as legal residents and yearly submitted residential information to the proper federal office, as ICE did not exist then. I remember that, as a preteen, I helped them fill out the yearly notice form regarding their status. I learned early of the blessing of the Constitution and the Fourteenth Amendment, and I believed that I possessed birthright citizenship at birth. As a result of President Trump’s executive order, a team of Attorneys General and civil rights organizations filed requests to restrain the executive order, in various district federal courts. Days after the president signed the executive order, a Reagan-appointed federal judge in Seattle temporarily blocked the attempt to end birthright citizenship, declaring that the Fourteenth Amendment clearly describes citizen birthright. A book entitled American by Birth, by Carol Nackenoff and Julie Novkov, copyrighted 2022, describes in detail how a Chinese citizen was refused reentry into the United State by port authorities after his visit to China, believing him a non-citizen, in 1898. He legally challenged his refusal of reentry, and his case made it to the Supreme Court, where the court decided, 7 to 2, that he was indeed a citizen by birthright as the Fourteenth Amendment described. We are now living through a time when our democracy may disappear at the hands of one man. That man wishes to decide who may be a citizen, and who may receive Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid. That man looks to decide who he can deport from our county without lawful due process, and which Supreme Court orders he can defy. The list of his theocratic ambitions is long. What is perhaps more disquieting is that he was elected in a fair national election by United States citizens. |
Published by the Davis
Democratic Club
Temporary Newsletter Editor: G Richard Yamagata
