The LONG version of a letter to the Deseret News regarding their editorial.
Your editorial (Sep. 17) opining “Don't Alter the Constitution” suggests that many of the “public policy” problems associated with birthright citizenship (actually with illegal immigration) could be solve through legislation. Your suggestion that “chain migration” can be solved by legislation is correct, but you failed to offer any editorial support for the solving the issue.
Not amending the Constitution is probably a point with which most Utahns agree. Sadly, though, the editorial did not mention (or support) several laws proposed concerning birthright citizenship, or chain migration at the federal level in recent years. A recent example is Rep. Deal's H.R. 1868 which would define and properly interpret the 14th amendment.
The question that most often arises over the 14th amendment is the meaning of the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” Click here or here for further information on that issue.
Although there have been court cases concerning the 14th Amendment, there have been no court cases were decided strictly on the basis of the meaning of jurisdiction or 'allegiance.'
“The constitution nowhere defines the meaning of these words, either by way of inclusion or of exclusion, except in so far as this is done by the affirmative declaration that 'all persons born r naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.' US v. wong Kim Ark, 1898
