Brief filed in effort to restore Fourteenth Amendment, end birthright citizenship

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(The Center Square) – America First Legal is leading the charge for the United States to return to the "original meaning" of the Fourteenth Amendment, meaning that children born to illegal aliens in the country are not American citizens.

“Citizenship is not automatic, nor is it a right: it is earned through allegiance, consent, and law,” a press release from nonprofit law firm America First Legal (AFL) said.

“The Framers said it plainly: the Citizenship Clause does not include ‘aliens or anyone owing allegiance to a foreign sovereignty,’” the release said. “Courts and scholars ever since have agreed.”

AFL said that it and law firm Boyden Gray PLLC “filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of eighteen members of the House Judiciary Committee.”

When contacted twice each, neither AFL nor Boyden Gray responded.

In their brief, the law firms urged “the Court to defend the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment and the limits it places on U.S. citizenship,” the release said.

The brief made the point that children born to foreign ambassadors or invading soldiers living in the United States are not considered U.S. citizens, as stated in the release.

This idea is “not because those parents have immunity, but because they owe allegiance elsewhere,” the release said.

“The same principle applies to children of aliens unlawfully present in the country: their parents owe allegiance to another nation and are here without the consent of the United States,” the release said. 

“This is not a question of compassion, but of constitutional order,” the release said. “Citizenship cannot be born of defiance, and allegiance cannot exist without consent.”

Additionally, AFL’s brief “argues that allegiance is a reciprocal bond requiring loyalty from the individual and consent from the sovereign. When that consent is broken, citizenship cannot be claimed.”

The release explained that “the Fourteenth Amendment enshrines this principle, granting citizenship only to those born or naturalized in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction – meaning total, exclusive allegiance and lawful presence, not mere location.”

Only Congress can confer citizenship, the release stated. 

“The Fourteenth Amendment does not confer citizenship on the children of illegal aliens, and Congress has never granted it by statute,” the release said. “Thus, it may not be conferred upon the children of aliens, regardless of birthplace.”

Vice President of America First Legal Dan Epstein said in the release: “Our history and tradition stand for the proposition that citizenship depends upon a public determination of allegiance.”

“Being subject to the country’s jurisdiction is not a default presumption. Instead, citizenship is a duty, a bond, and a privilege reserved for those who are subject to our laws and our sovereignty into an entitlement,” Epstein said.