Immigration Article of the Day: An Originalist Case for Birthright Citizenship of Unlawful Immigrants’ Children: 1850s-1860s Anti-Chinese Restrictions as Categorical Context by Jed H. Shugerman

Some opponents of birthright citizenship for the children of “unlawful immigrants” make the following originalist claim about the Fourteenth Amendment: Even if the clause meant birthright citizenship, it applies today only to “lawful immigrants,” because the category of “unlawful immigrant” or “illegal immigrant” did not exist in the 1860s, when the clause was written and ratified.

KJ