Trump.45 has injected yet another barbed and nasty divisor into the 2018 Midterm Election campaign exactly one week before Election Day. This time it is his specious claim he can dismantle Amendment XIV to the U.S. Constitution (on the books since 1868; 150 years) by Presidential Executive Order, bypassing Congress and the Courts. He wants to end “ridiculous” birthright citizenship.
It is ironic that the citizenship provisions of the Constitution have been in place for all Americans since before any Trump relative ever set foot on our nation’s shores as immigrants. (Grandfather Friedrich Trump, aged 16, fled Germany to escape his obligatory military service duties in his native country in 1885.)
Friedrich Trump’s U.S. Immigration Record (October 1885)
So by any reasonable interpretation of properly securing our borders, Trump’s grandfather should have been seized by immigration authorities and immediately deported back to Germany in 1885 as an illegal alien draft dodger, attempting to inveigle his way into our beautiful country. There were no Trump family citizens in America when Friedrich snuck in; he brought no money or assets with him; and he had no occupational skills of any note when he arrived as a callow youth attempting to evade his sworn military duties as a German citizen.
Friedrich Trump, Donald J. Trump’s Paternal Grandfather
But those uncomfortable Trump family facts are not the plain problem with this inquiry. Fast-forward 90 years to grandson Donald J. Trump in 1976 meeting his first wife Ivana in New York. Ivana was a Czech by birth.
Trump’s Personal Birther Problems
Donald J. Trump’s Five Children
As nearly everyone knows by now, Trump.45 has led a most colorful personal life with respect to dating, marriages, and infidelity. What is pertinent here is that Trump.45 has been married three times, and fathered five natural children (so far as public records document). His three wives, in order, were Ivana Zelníčková (Czech by birth), Marla Maples (American by birth), and Melania Knauss (Slovenian by birth). Two of these three women are foreign born, and neither was a naturalized American citizen when they gave birth to four out of five of Trump’s children.
Patriotic U.S. Anchor Babies
To put it baldly, 80% of Trump’s own children are Anchor Babies. To be sure, both women eventually gained naturalized American citizenship after the fact, as their American citizenship status was cleaned up and regularized.
From the Wikipedia entry for Ivana Trump:
Ivana Marie Trump (née Zelníčková; Czech, born February 20, 1949) is a former model and businesswoman, who was the first wife of Donald Trump. They married in 1977 and divorced in 1992. They have three children together, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump.
In 1976, Zelníčková met Donald Trump in New York City. On April 7, 1977, they married in a lavish wedding officiated by Norman Vincent Peale. Donald and Ivana Trump became leading figures in New York society during the 1980s. They worked on several large projects, including the renovation of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City, construction of the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
They had three children: Donald Trump Jr. (born December 31, 1977), Ivanka Trump (born October 30, 1981), and Eric Trump (born January 6, 1984). Donald Jr. learned to speak fluent Czech (with help of his maternal grandfather), while daughter Ivanka has only basic understanding of her mother’s native tongue and Eric was not exposed to the language because at the time of his birth his grandparents were already comfortable enough in using English. Ivana has nine grandchildren.
Ivana took a major role in The Trump Organization. She became the Vice President of Interior Design for the company, leading the signature design of Trump Tower. Afterwards, her then-husband appointed her to head up the Trump Castle Hotel and Casino as president. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1988.
From the Wikipedia entry for wife number 2, Marla Maples:
Marla Ann Maples (born October 27, 1963) is an American actress and television personality. Maples was the second wife of President Donald Trump. They married in 1993 and divorced in 1999.
Maples is best known for her marriage to Donald Trump, beginning with a relationship initiated while Trump was married to first wife, Ivana. Maples met Trump in 1989 and had a highly publicized relationship with at least one breakup. Trump appeared on the front page of the New York Post eight days in a row, to Trump’s amazement. The couple had a daughter, Tiffany Ariana Trump, born on October 13, 1993.
The 1993 Long Island Rail Road shooting caused Trump to reevaluate his life and propose to Maples. The couple married in December 1993 at New York City’s Plaza Hotel in a ceremony reportedly attended by a thousand guests, including Rosie O’Donnell and O. J. Simpson. In 1996, Trump fired his bodyguard after a police officer found Maples and the bodyguard together under a lifeguard stand on a deserted beach at 4 am. Maples and Trump separated in May 1997 and divorced June 8, 1999.
From the Wikipedia entry for Melania Knauss, wife number 3, who is currently married to Trump.45:
Melania Trump (born Melanija Knavs; Germanized to Melania Knauss; born April 26, 1970) is a Slovenian-American former fashion model and, as wife of the 45th U.S. President Donald Trump, the current First Lady of the United States.
Melanija Knavs was born in Novo Mesto, and grew up in Sevnica, in the Yugoslav republic of Slovenia. She worked as a fashion model through agencies in Milan and Paris, later moving to New York City in 1996. Her modeling career was associated with Irene Marie Models and Trump Model Management.
In 2001, Knavs became a permanent resident of the United States. She married Donald Trump in 2005 and obtained U.S. citizenship in 2006. She is the second American First Lady born outside the United States, the first naturalized U.S. citizen to become First Lady and the second Catholic First Lady.
Knauss and Donald Trump became engaged in 2004. On January 22, 2005, they married in an Anglican service at The Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida, followed by a reception in the ballroom at her husband’s Mar-a-Lago estate. The marriage was her first and his third. The event was attended by celebrities such as Katie Couric, Matt Lauer, Rudy Giuliani, Heidi Klum, Star Jones, P. Diddy, Shaquille O’Neal, Barbara Walters, Conrad Black, Regis Philbin, Simon Cowell, Kelly Ripa, then-Senator Hillary Clinton, and former president Bill Clinton. At the reception, Billy Joel serenaded the crowd with “Just the Way You Are” and supplied new lyrics to the tune of “The Lady Is a Tramp”. The Trumps’ wedding ceremony and reception were widely covered by the media. She wore a $200,000 dress made by John Galliano of the house of Christian Dior.
On March 20, 2006, she gave birth to their son, Barron William Trump. She suggested his middle name, while her husband suggested his first name.
Trump’s Personal Anchor Baby Gallery
To sum up, Trump was married to a non-American citizen from 1977-1992 who bore him three children; Donald Jr. (1977), Ivanka (1981), and Eric (1984). His wife Ivana became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1988. Trump,45’s three oldest children are Anchor Babies.
Trump.45’s second marriage was to a natural born American woman from 1993-1999. She bore him one child, Tiffany (1993). Trump.45’s fourth child is a natural born American citizen.
Trump.45’s third and current marriage was to a non-American citizen from 2005-present. She bore him one child, Barron (2006). Melania Trump became a naturalized American citizen later in 2006. Barron is an Anchor Baby.
DJT, Trump.45, the most explicitly anti-immigrant President in American in more than 100 years, is the father of four Anchor Babies, and only one natural born American child. If, that is, you reject birthright citizenship as an American constitutional protection, and proclaim it is just “ridiculous”, and must be ended as Trump.45 suggests.
How droll that Trump.45 can’t even meet his own declared minimum citizenship standards for four of his five children, including his son born just 12 years ago, when Trump.45 was already 60 years old. No mistake of youth here.
All the while, he presumes to lecture the rest of America on solid family values, and protecting our borders from invasion by alien hordes. Look to your own households, sir!
The Offensive Term “Anchor Baby”
Definition of the term (2012) from the Wikipedia entry:
n. Offensive Used as a disparaging term for a child born to a noncitizen mother in a country that grants automatic citizenship to children born on its soil, especially when the child’s birthplace is thought to have been chosen in order to improve the mother’s or other relatives’ chances of securing eventual citizenship.
Check, check, and check. Trump’s three oldest and his youngest children fall squarely within the dictionary definition of this obnoxious term, that Trump.45 has used to harmful effect in speeches and rallies.
More on this freighted term of speech.
From Wikipedia:
“Anchor baby” is a term (regarded by many as a pejorative Used to refer to a child born to a noncitizen mother in a country which has birthright citizenship, especially when viewed as providing an advantage to family members seeking to secure citizenship or legal residency. The term is generally used as a derogative reference to the supposed role of the child, who automatically qualifies as an American citizen under jus soli and the rights guaranteed in the 14th Amendment. The term is also often used in the context of the debate over illegal immigration to the United States to refer to children of illegal immigrants. A similar term, “passport baby”, has been used in Canada for children born through so-called “maternity” or “birth tourism”.
The term is generally considered pejorative. In 2011 the American Heritage Dictionary added an entry for the term in the dictionary’s new edition, which did not indicate that the term was disparaging. Following a critical blog piece by Mary Giovagnoli, the director of the Immigration Policy Center, a pro-immigration research group in Washington, the dictionary updated its online definition to indicate that the term is “offensive”, similar to its entries on ethnic slurs. As of 2012, the definition reads:
n. Offensive Used as a disparaging term for a child born to a noncitizen mother in a country that grants automatic citizenship to children born on its soil, especially when the child’s birthplace is thought to have been chosen in order to improve the mother’s or other relatives’ chances of securing eventual citizenship.
The decision to revise the definition led to some criticism from immigration opponents, such as the Center for Immigration Studies and the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
According to the Double-Tongued Dictionary, written by American lexicographer Grant Barrett, the term “anchor baby” means “a child born of an immigrant in the United States, said to be a device by which a family can find legal foothold in the US, since those children are automatically allowed to choose United States citizenship.” In response to a reader comment, Barrett claimed that the term is used to refer to a child of any immigrant, not just children of illegal immigrants.
In 2012, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, in a meeting designed to promote the 2010 Utah Compact declaration as a model for a federal government approach to immigration, said that “The use of the word ‘anchor baby’ when we’re talking about a child of God is offensive.”
Let me repeat Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff’s declaration in a political meeting in 2012:
“The use of the word ‘anchor baby’ when we’re talking about a child of God is offensive.”
Trump.45 fancies himself a Christian by belief and practice, and counts Evangelicals as his most devoted supporters. Their continued derogatory use of the term to refer to numbers of God’s innocent children is un-Christian, unsanctioned by Biblical scripture, and indeed offensive.
Trump’s Latest Constitutional Follies
Trump.45 is in Charge of Only One Branch of Our Government
Trump.45 likes to make up all-powerful ruling fantasies, as if as Head of one branch of our tripartite Constitutional democracy he can play all three roles at once, as it suits him. Fortunately, the Founding Fathers anticipated that someday America would be saddled with a demagogic autocrat, and took pains to restrain their ability to willy-nilly damage our Country and its precious democracy.
Here Trump.45’s ignorant lashing out runs into the beautiful, very high wall of protection from Amendment XIV to the Constitution, governing our country for 150 years.
U.S. Constitutional Amendment XIV: Birthright Citizenship
Fourteenth Amendment: Safeguarding America for 150 Years
From the Wikipedia entry for Amendment XIV, enacted in 1868 just after the Civil War:
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
The meat and potatoes of the Amendment is all in Section 1, and contained in the first sentence. The lede comes first.
Birthright Citizenship: Selected Aspects
Amendment XIV and its ramifications have been the American Constitutional Law of the Land for 150 years, and continue to protect us to the present day. More from the Wikipedia entry:
Birthright citizenship in the United States is acquired by virtue of the circumstances of birth. It contrasts with citizenship acquired in other ways, for example by naturalization. Birthright citizenship may be conferred by jus soli or jus sanguinis. Pursuant to the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), U.S. citizenship is automatically granted to any person born within and subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. This includes the territories of Puerto Rico, the Marianas (Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands), and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and also applies to children born elsewhere in the world to U.S. citizens (with certain exceptions).
The aspect of birthright citizenship conferred by jus soli (Latin: right of the soil) is regarded as controversial by some U.S. political figures (due to its application to the native-born offspring of illegal aliens.).
The policy stems from the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The 1868 text states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that approximately 7.5% of all births in the U.S. (about 300,000 births per year) are to undocumented immigrants. The Pew Hispanic Center also estimates that there are 4.5 million children who were born to unauthorized immigrants that received citizenship via birth in the United States; while the Migration Policy Institute estimates that there are 4.1 million children. Both estimates exclude anyone eighteen and older who might have benefited.
According to the Constitution of the United States only natural born citizens are eligible to serve as President of the United States or as Vice President. The text of the Constitution does not define what is meant by natural born: in particular it does not specify whether there is any distinction to be made between persons whose citizenship is based on jus sanguinis (parentage) and those whose citizenship is based on jus soli (birthplace). As a result, controversies have arisen over the eligibility of a number of candidates for the office.
Throughout the history of the United States, the fundamental legal principle governing citizenship has been that birth within the United States grants U.S. citizenship; although enslaved persons and children of enslaved mothers, under the principle of partus sequitur ventrem, were excluded. The United States did not grant citizenship after the American Civil War to all former slaves until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which was subsequently confirmed by the Fourteenth Amendment. American Indian tribal members are not covered specifically by the constitutional guarantee. Those living in tribes on reservations were generally not considered citizens until passage of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, although by that time nearly two-thirds of American Indians were already citizens.
Birthright citizenship, as with much United States law, has its roots in English common law.
Justice Roger B. Taney in the majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford 60 U.S. (How. 19) 393 (1857) held that African Americans, whether slave or free, had never been and could never become citizens of the United States, as they were excluded by the Constitution.
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 declared: “… all persons born in the United States, and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States.” (“Indians not taxed” referred to tribal members living on reservations.)
Since the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution on July 9, 1868, citizenship of persons born in the United States has been controlled by its Citizenship Clause, which states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
Amendment XIV to the U.S. Constitution has every bit the same effect and authority as the Second Amendment so dear to Trump,45’s heart and the minds of his crowds. You crave the protections of one amendment, you get them all. No priority in selection for recognizing authority one by one. No Chinese Menu selection of choosing one from Column A, and two from Column B for enforcement purposes.
As with so many other Trump.45 recent immigration tropes, his Birthright Citizenship opposition also has an ugly root in past discrimination, as Amendment XIV was specifically passed to undo the some of the causes of America’s Civil War, and specifically to reverse the immense tragedy of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision from 1857 that “African Americans, whether slave or free, had never been and could never become citizens of the United States, as they were excluded by the Constitution.” This decision still represents a stain on the honor of the Court.
As a funny little aside, if Trump.45’s intention to reverse Birthright Citizenship were ever to be implemented by a strict constructionist U.S. Supreme Court majority, four of Trump.45’s children: Don, Jr., Ivanka, Eric, and Barron would likely be constitutionally prohibited from running for President in their lifetimes, since their citizenship is based on jus soli (birthplace) to non-citizen mothers and not based on jus sanguinis (parentage) to U.S. citizen parents. Only Tiffany would have an uncontested shot at running. It is quite unlikely that Trump.45 knows what jus soli means, given his general disinterest in legal niceties and book learning. No doubt someone forgot to tell him that. Oh, well.
Extent of Birthright Citizenship Elsewhere Worldwide
Another Trump.45 counter-factual gem given in his latest Fox News interview on Monday night was that only the U.S has Birthright Citizenship. He is so wrong. In fact, there are 36 countries with unconditional or near-unconditional Jus soli citizenship rules, including the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Not to mention another 24 countries with partial or restricted Jus soli citizenship.
Hard to believe how purely ignorant the most Powerful Man in the World insists on proving himself to be, on a quite regular basis.
Extent of Jus soli Citizenship Worldwide 2018 (Note the Universal Coverage in North America)
From the Wikipedia entry:
Jus soli, meaning “right of the soil”, commonly referred to as birthright citizenship in the United States, is the right of anyone born in the territory of a state to nationality or citizenship.[
Jus soli was part of the English common law, in contrast to jus sanguinis, which derives from the Roman law that influenced the civil-law systems of continental Europe. Where it exists universally, it is often not quite unconditional. For instance, some countries deny citizenship to children of foreign diplomats. As an unconditional (or near-unconditional) basis for citizenship, jus soli is the predominant rule in the Americas, but it is rare elsewhere. Since the Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland was enacted in 2004, no European country grants citizenship based on unconditional or near-unconditional jus soli.
Almost all states in Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania grant citizenship at birth based upon the principle of jus sanguinis (right of blood), in which citizenship is inherited through parents not by birthplace, or a restricted version of jus soli in which citizenship by birthplace is automatic only for the children of certain immigrants. Countries that have acceded to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness will grant nationality to otherwise stateless persons who were born on their territory, or on a ship or plane flagged by that country.
Jus soli is associated with permissive citizenship rights. Most countries with unconditional or near-unconditional jus soli laws tend to give birthright citizenship (and nationality) based on jus sanguinis rules as well, although these stipulations tend to be more restrictive than in countries that use jus sanguinis as the primary basis for nationality.
Conclusion
Trump.45 talks a big game to hyper-inflame his most virulent supporters. Apparently, Jewish financial meddling, FAKE NEWS, and invading caravans of aliens are not enough whipping to end the political season.
In the last 24 hours, Trump.45 has added 5,200 active duty soldiers to stop a crowd of 3,000 or so asylum seekers. More than half of them are women and infants, and small children who are walking towards the U.S which is more than 1,000 miles away, at a rate of perhaps 15-20 miles per day without supplies, food, water, or funds.
And then there is Trump.45’s newest piling on, a phony threat to sign an Executive Order to undo 150 years of Constitutional Amendment XIV. Good Luck with that.
In the personal character department, as Trump.45 whips up his followers to fear and loathe the Other, whether by religion (Jews, Muslims) or skin color (African-Americans or Africans, Hispanics and Latinos, or Asians), or immigration status (economic migrants, refugees, or asylum seekers), he fails to disclose his own hypocrisy and cant.
Four of his own five children are Anchor Babies, and in the immigration catechism practiced by the Right, thus don’t belong n this country. Clean your own house first, Donald, if you want real Americans to listen and respond to you.
Fortunately, in the end, America generally has a bigger heart and soul that that crabbed, bitter, ignorant, and uneconomic outlook. Our country is built on the contributions of immigrants. They work and pay taxes, refresh and expand our culture and traditions, and benefit our economy. America has always welcomed them here for more than 250 years. We are nearly all sons and daughters of immigrants, save for a very few million actual Native Americans.
Trump’s family has only been in this country for 130 years from first footstep. His grandfather, grandmother, and mother were all pure immigrants; so are two of his three wives; and four of his five children are Anchor Babies. He ought to be very cautious about zealot immigration preaching. Or reflect on the fact that his Grandfather should have been tossed out of the U.S. as soon as he landed, since he was a wanted man in his own country of Germany when he got here.
As Americans, we forgive Trump.45 for his grandfather’s transgressions, and pardon his children’s lack of full American bloodlines. We accept them as part of our Nation’s family, and Trump.45 should have the guts and grace to treat others the same way his own family has been treated in America by the rest of us.
Or on some day in the future, his family might be ripped out root and branch for violation of some strict interpretation of no-exception laws and regulations related to immigration and heritage retroactively applied by Executive Order of a new President. ‘Lock Her Up’ could become ‘Put Them On a Boat’ after 2024.
Let’s not go there.
In the meantime, the 2018 Midterm Election Day is only 7 days away. Do your civic duty. Otherwise, what happens next is your own fault.
America, Go Out and Vote Your Conscience
Tuesday, November 6, 2018
