Citizenship Law Quotes
The 14th Amendment made the Black slaves and their families all citizens as most people know, but it had two other important aspects. It prohibited the individual states from deciding who who was and was not a citizen of the country and the state. In addition, it guaranteed that anyone born in the United States was a citizen regardless of the status of his parents—citizens or not, illegal immigrants or legal.
This law was the excuse that was used by the racists of the 1920s to deny Japanese the right of American Citizenship and to inter them on the West Coast in WWII. The concept of Dual Citizenship which was so common in America after WWII was then anathema on the grounds that Americans cannot have dual loyalties. The anti-Japanese American forces claimed that since Japanese are always Japanese citizens even if born in America. Therefore, they are not to be trusted.
This was the first restriction on immigration and citizenship, and was at the time uniquely directed against Chinese.
Surprisingly to most people, American Indians born in the United States were not automatically citizens until this law was passed making them so.
Various elements of the 14th amendment were being debated. Language referred to “citizens” but many of the abolitionists and reconstructionists were concerned that the slavery forces in the Southern states would not provide protections to the Negro and the grounds that the were not citizens. As long as the states could define who was and was not a citizen, any of the equal protection clauses of the proposed 14TH Amendment could be evaded. Senator Howard then proposed this language which was accepted and became part of the Amendment. In modern times this particular clause was more relevant to the debate about immigration than to civil rights but originally the clause was included to make sure that Blacks would be citizens.
