Coalition to Protect Constitutional Citizenship Expands to More than 80 National Organizations and Bipartisan Thought Leaders
Washington, DC – Americans for Constitutional Citizenship today announced the dramatic expansion of its coalition, which is dedicated to preserving the integrity of our nation’s Constitution and its guarantee of citizenship to all persons born in the United States. The coalition now includes bipartisan group of thought leaders and constitutional scholars, and a diverse collection of more than 80 civil and human rights organizations.
The coalition, founded in January in response to several state and federal anti-citizenship proposals, also released a letter sent to governors, state legislative leaders, and members of Congress urging them to reject any effort to rewrite the Constitution’s Citizenship Clause.
“Efforts to rewrite the Citizenship Clause, if pursued, would have far-reaching negative consequences,” the letter said. “Instead of reducing unauthorized immigration, they would simply increase the number of people who live outside of the law. Rather than strengthening our families and society, they would feed into slanderous and dehumanizing myths about immigrant mothers and their children. They would also create countless practical questions, to be addressed in the midst of the momentous occasion of childbirth. Finally, to the extent that these efforts might be undertaken through ordinary state or federal legislative processes, they are patently unconstitutional.”
The letter was sent on the anniversary of Supreme Court’s 1898 landmark decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which confirmed that the 14th Amendment of the Constitution guarantees citizenship to every person born on U.S. soil and subject to U.S. jurisdiction.
As the efforts of opponents to constitutional citizenship lose steam across the country, Americans for Constitutional Citizenship is growing stronger. The coalition includes conservative thought leaders Linda Chavez and James Ho; former Clinton Assistant Attorney General Walter Dellinger; and more than 80 organizations, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, the NAACP, the Asian-American Justice Center, and the ACLU. (A full list of groups is appended.)
Americans for Constitutional Citizenship is coordinating policy, communications, and field efforts among its coalition members to protect citizenship at the state and federal levels. In its newly adopted statement of the principles, the coalition asserts that “efforts to undermine the Citizenship Clause, whether by federal statute or through state legislation, are unconstitutional” and “would violate our values of equality and fairness, and would result in exactly the sort of permanent underclass that the 14th Amendment was written to prevent from ever again existing in our nation.” The complete statement of principles is available at lcprd.actbot.co/citizenship.
“Americans of all backgrounds are coming together to declare that ‘our identity cannot be legislated away,’” said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, which helped organize the coalition. “As long as there are politicians attempting to rob citizenship from natural-born Americans, we will be there to oppose them in the strongest possible terms.”
More information about Americans for Constitutional Citizenship—including the complete statement of principles—is available at lcprd.actbot.co/citizenship. The full text of today’s letter is below.
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March 28, 2011
Dear Member of Congress:
As the Advisory Committee of the newly-formed coalition Americans for Constitutional Citizenship (ACC), we write to present you with our “Statement of Principles” and our growing list of member organizations. ACC was organized in response to the unveiling, earlier this year, of several federal and state proposals that would undermine the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment of our Constitution in the name of controlling unauthorized immigration. Our coalition stands ready to strongly oppose any such efforts.
The 14th Amendment was adopted to prevent exactly what these legislative proposals attempt to do. Its guarantee of constitutional citizenship was intended to put United States citizenship above the preferences and prejudices of any politician or era. It is clear that the authors of the 14th Amendment intended it to apply to children of immigrants, and the federal courts have agreed.
Efforts to rewrite the Citizenship Clause, if pursued, would have far-reaching negative consequences. Instead of reducing unauthorized immigration, they would simply increase the number of people who live outside of the law. Rather than strengthening our families and society, they would feed into slanderous and dehumanizing myths about immigrant mothers and their children. They would also create countless practical questions, to be addressed in the midst of the momentous occasion of childbirth. Finally, to the extent that these efforts might be undertaken through ordinary state or federal legislative processes, they are patently unconstitutional.
For these reasons, we urge you to reject, in the strongest terms, any attempt to rewrite our Constitution’s Citizenship Clause. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Wade Henderson
President & CEO
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Barbara R. Arnwine
Executive Director
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Linda Chavez
Chairman
One Nation Indivisible
Richard Cohen
President
Southern Poverty Law Center
Walter E. Dellinger III
Former Assistant Attorney General &
Head of Office of Legal Counsel 1993-1996
James C. Ho
Partner, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Former Solicitor General of Texas
Alan Jenkins
Executive Director
The Opportunity Agenda
Laura W. Murphy
Director of Washington Legislative Office
American Civil Liberties Union
Karen K. Narasaki
President & CEO
Asian American Justice Center
John A. Payton
President and Director-Counsel
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
Thomas A. Saenz
President and General Counsel
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
Hilary O. Shelton
Director & Senior Vice President for Advocacy
NAACP, Washington Bureau
Statement of Principles
Who We Are:
Americans for Constitutional Citizenship is a nationwide coalition of organizations and individuals who support the American Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. While we have a diversity of views on many issues, we stand united in our shared belief that the Citizenship Clause is a fundamental freedom that must be preserved.
Why We Support – And Will Protect – The Constitution’s Citizenship Clause:
“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.” U.S. Const., amend. XIV, § 1.
- Ratified in 1868, in the wake of the Civil War, our nation’s bloodiest conflict, the Citizenship Clause was designed to ensure that all children born in the United States, with minor exceptions for children of foreign diplomats and invading forces, are citizens. It ensures that states could never again seek to create an underclass of Americans.
- Since the Citizenship Clause’s adoption, the federal courts have repeatedly confirmed that it means exactly what it says. In 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Wong Kim Ark that the Clause guarantees citizenship to people born in the United States even if their parents were ineligible for citizenship, and that Congress could not limit its meaning by statute. This ruling has remained settled law for more than a century.
- The Citizenship Clause’s guarantee has been profoundly beneficial for our nation. It has served as a cornerstone of the movement to secure civil rights for all Americans, including the right to vote. And it has played an important role in unifying America’s great cultural diversity, which serves as a role model for the rest of the world.
- Efforts to undermine the Citizenship Clause, whether by federal statute or through state legislation, are unconstitutional. The Constitution, our foundational legal document, overrides conflicting federal statutes as well as contrary state constitutions or laws.
- Taking out our frustration with the current immigration system by creating a dual society would be misguided, would violate our values of equality and fairness, and would result in exactly the sort of permanent underclass that the 14th Amendment was written to prevent from ever again existing in our nation.
- Undermining the Citizenship Clause would have many other disastrous effects for everyone in our nation. The citizenship of every person born in the United States could be called into question – and requiring parents to prove their citizenship, in the midst of the momentous occasion of childbirth, would require the creation of extensive new government bureaucracy along with new costs, burdensome procedures, invasion of privacy, and legal disputes.
The undersigned members of Americans for Constitutional Citizenship support the Constitution’s Citizenship Clause, which guarantees United States citizenship – both federal and state – to those born in this country, and oppose any effort to diminish its scope or protections.
Member Organizations:
African American Catholic Congregation
African American Ministers In Action
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
American Association for Affirmative Action
American Civil Liberties Union
American Federation of Teachers
American Immigration Council
American Immigration Lawyers Association
America’s Voice
Anti-Defamation League
Asian American Justice Center (a member of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice)
Asian Law Alliance
Asian Pacific American Community Support and Service Association
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO
Asian Pacific American Legal Center
Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon
Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations
Border Action Network
Casa Latina
Center for American Progress
Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights
The Center for Pan Asian Community Services, Inc.
Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty
DC Vote
Demos
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
Disciples Justice Action Network
Faith Action for Community Equity (FACE) Hawai’i
Farmworker Justice
First Focus
Franciscan Action Network
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society
Hispanic Federation
Hispanically Speaking News
Immigration Equality Action Fund
Japanese American Citizens League
Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA)
LatinoJustice PRLDEF
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
League of United Latin American Citizens
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
NAACP
NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc.
National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd
National Asian Pacific American Bar Association
National Association of Hispanic Federal Executives
National Association of Human Rights Workers
National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund
National Black Justice Coalition
National CAPACD
National Coalition for Immigrant Women’s Rights
National Conference of Puerto Rican Women Inc (NACOPRW)
National Council of Jewish Women
National Council of La Raza
National Education Association
National Employment Law Project
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
National Hispana Leadership Institute
National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators (NHCSL)
National Hispanic Media Coalition
National Immigration Forum
National Immigration Law Center
National Partnership for Women & Families
National Urban League
NETWORK
OCA
The Opportunity Agenda
One Nation Indivisible
People For the American Way
Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.
Society of American Law Teachers
South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT)
Southern Poverty Law Center
Southwest Voter Registration Education Project
United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society
United States Hispanic Leadership Institute
William C. Velasquez Institute