Americans for Constitutional Citizenship Denounces Anti-Citizenship Resolution

Americans for Constitutional Citizenship (ACC) is opposing a resolution introduced by Sens. David
Vitter, R. La., and Rand Paul, R. Ky., which would deny citizenship to children born on U.S. soil to
undocumented immigrants.

“The Vitter-Paul Resolution seeking to eviscerate the Constitution’s
definition of citizenship is an insult to the basic values and foundations of
our nation,” said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference
on Civil and Human Rights, a key organizer behind ACC. “The 14^th
Amendment’s guarantee of citizenship to those born on U.S. soil is a cornerstone
of our identity as Americans, one that has served our nation well for more than
140 years.”

The resolution would radically redefine constitutional citizenship by
limiting birth citizenship to only three categories of people: those with a
parent who is a U.S. citizen, a lawful permanent resident residing in the U.S.
or in active-duty service in the U.S. Armed Forces.

The American
Citizenship
clause
of
the
14^th
Amendment
states explicitly that “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.” The 14^th Amendment also forbids
any state from abridging the “privileges or immunities of citizens” and from
denying to any person the “equal protection of the laws.”

The 14^th Amendment was ratified in the
aftermath of the Civil War and in direct response to the U.S. Supreme Court
decision in DredScottv.
Sanford,
which sought to deny full citizenship to African Americans. Congress intended
the amendment to resolve not only the status of African Americans and their
descendants, but also to apply to members of all racial groups and immigrants.

“The Vitter-Paul Resolution would take a sledgehammer to this foundational
principle, creating a caste system of second-class citizens that the authors of
the 14^th Amendment, in their wisdom, specifically rejected,”
Henderson said. “Likewise, the Vitter-Paul Resolution should be rejected as
foolishly unwise and divisive.”

Constitutional citizenship enshrined in the 14^th Amendment was
intended to put citizenship above the preferences and prejudices of any
politician or era, and to ensure that all those born on U.S. soil are treated
equally with rights of citizenship that no government may abridge.

The Vitter-Paul resolution comes as Arizona
becomes
the
first
state
to
introduce
unconstitutional
legislation
to
create
a
second–class
of
citizenship
for Arizona-born children of undocumented immigrants.