National Review: ‘Constitutional Originalism’ Means Giving U.S. Citizenship to Anchor Babies

The conservative beltway publication National Review published a piece in which their legal columnist argues that “constitutional originalism requires” that United States citizenship be given to the children of illegal aliens.

Dan McLaughlin of National Review — which infamously launched a campaign against President Trump during the 2016 presidential election — published the piece, titled “Constitutional Originalism Requires Birthright Citizenship,” which claims that the U.S. Constitution does provide birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens.

These children are commonly known as “anchor babies,” as they anchor their illegal alien and noncitizen parents in the U.S.

Subsequently, when given birthright citizenship, anchor babies are also rewarded with the privilege of bringing their foreign relatives to the U.S. through the process known as “chain migration.” Every two new immigrants to the U.S. brings an estimated seven foreign relatives with them.

Dan McLaughlin writes for National Review:

Among the ideas that percolate now and then on the Right is the idea of reforming or eliminating birthright citizenship, the policy by which anyone born on American soil automatically becomes a natural-born citizen. From a policy perspective, there is fair grounds for debate: there are reasonable objections to the abuse of birthright citizenship, but also serious problems of principle and practice with changing it. But from a legal perspective, the answer should be clear: a proper originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, as presently written, guarantees American citizenship to those born within our borders, with only a few limited exceptions. [Emphasis added]

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Any effort to uproot birthright citizenship, even for the children of illegal aliens, would bring us closer to the European problem of a two-tiered caste of citizens and permanently alienated aliens. Tampering with the status quo to root out the abuses might well create more problems than it is worth. [Emphasis added]

The Supreme Court, however, has never explicitly ruled that the children of illegal aliens must be granted automatic citizenship and many legal scholars dispute the idea.

Many leading conservative scholars argue the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment does not provide mandatory birthright citizenship to the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens or noncitizens, as these children are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction as that language was understood when the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified.

As Breitbart News has extensively reported, there are at least 4.5 million anchor babies in the U.S. This estimate does not include the potentially millions of anchor babies who are older than 18-years-old, nor does it include the anchor babies who are living overseas with their deported foreign parents.

The 4.5 million anchor babies estimate exceeds the four million American children born every year. In the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that there will be at least another 600,000 anchor babies born in the U.S., which would put the anchor baby population on track to exceed annual American births — should the U.S. birth rate not increase — by more than one million anchor babies.

Already, the anchor baby population exceeds the entire population of Los Angeles, California and is roughly half of the population of New York City.

Illegal aliens readily use the country’s birthright citizenship law, as Breitbart News has noted, to get their unborn children U.S. citizenship that further allows them to remain in the country.

Between December 2017 and April 2018, close to 600 illegal alien pregnant women were caught at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The U.S. is nearly alone in granting citizenship to illegal aliens’ children. For example, the U.S. and Canada are the two only developed nations with birthright citizenship. On the other hand, countries such as France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Italy, and Germany all have either outlawed birthright citizenship or never had such a policy to begin with.