Day Labor Network Statement on Birthright Citizenship: “This Land Is Still Our Land”

LOS ANGELES, April 1 — The following is a statement from Chris Newman, Legal Director, on behalf of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON):

“Today the Supreme Court hears arguments over whether President Trump gets to wreck the United States by rewriting the Constitution, specifically its 14th Amendment guarantee of citizenship by birth.

“The birthright citizenship clause of the14th Amendment is about children. It both protects our rights and stands for a unifying national proposition: all people born in this land, under this country’s flag, are citizens of this country.

“It is a simple idea, it makes sense, and it has worked for more than 150 years. The United States is a country of equality and freedom. It is not a land of bloodlines, pedigrees, or religious prophecy. And it certainly is not a country where getting a passport requires showing your papers from an obstetrician.

“As Justice Black wrote in Afroyim v Rusk: ‘It seems undeniable from the language they use,’ that the framers of the 14th Amendment ‘wanted to put citizenship beyond the power of any governmental unit to destroy.’ We expect that this principle remains undeniable after today, both in the Supreme Court and in the court of public opinion.

“Trump does not get to wave his hand and say, that baby is a citizen and that one is not. His executive powers do not allow him to create a permanent, stateless underclass of babies belonging to no country and having no rights.

“The United States is not Mar-a-Lago, and it certainly is not the American Kennel Club. We would like to tell Trump what he can do with his velvet rope. And his gaudy, pathetic country club.

“We know Trump will keep trying to wreck what’s good about the United States. We know he doesn’t give a hoot about law or policy. He only cares about power. Similarly, his henchman Stephen Miller is leading a brutal campaign of oppression and violence against some immigrants not as matter of policy, but rather as part of white nationalist project. Their assault on birthright citizenship is part of a march toward racist authoritarianism.

“To which we say: Not today, Trump. Not now or ever. NDLON, a proud organization of immigrants, is proud to be part of the fight for Constitutional values. We will always fight for absolute equality, for opportunity, and for humanity and democracy. We will always fight for our members and our members’ children.”

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