Sunday, January 29, 2017

Birthright citizenship and genealogical citizenship. "Breitbart" and your citizenship at risk.

In the United States currently an American citizen doesn't really have to be too concerned about proving citizenship. You have your birth certificate, and there is your father's birth certificate and your mother's and grandparent's birth certificates. There are layers of documentation making you a citizen.

However, without what is called, "birthright citizenship" your status of a citizen becomes a whole other question. 

You might claim to be a citizen because your father or mother was a citizen, but the question could be raised whether your parents were citizens, because were their parents, your grandparents, citizens. Your grandparents, are they citizens? Were their parents, your great grandparents citizens? They were born in the United States but they may not be valid citizens. 

As you can see your citizenship is now a involved genealogical project. You probably want to track down at least two citizens to be on the safe side. Hopefully the court house where some records exist to prove your citizenship didn't burn down sometime in the 1920s or 1880s or get hit by a tornado in 1950s. I wonder what the fees might be for access to some records. 

Also, you will want to hire a good genealogist and it will cost money. You probably need to have these records notarized. Do you have a safe deposit box to keep these records? Probably needs to be the larger size box.  Maybe each brother and sister should have a set also as back up. 

Persons who are white often assume that their citizenship under a re-interpreted 14th Amendment would be a given. Actually, there is a whole history of illegal immigration from Canada that has gone on for generations. A change in the understanding of the 14th Amendment would apply to everyone. 

I think that if birth right citizenship is interpreted out of the 14th Amendment we can expect a lot of states controlled by Republicans to require some type of proof which poorer residents won't be able to provide.  The 24 Amendment to the Constitution will become a dead letter. You won't need a poll tax to drive off African American voters and poor whites, since the cost of proving citizenship will suddenly become prohibitively expensive for those with limited means. 

Ex-slaves often probably weren't dragging around genealogical records when freed. People whose families were poor might find there isn't much of a genealogical record to go on. So it might exclude many who simply don't have a genealogical record to research. 

Breitbart has been campaigning against the 14th Amendment birthright citizenship as have been much of the conservative media. President Trump is going to be nominating a candidate for the Supreme Court. With the Senate in the hands of Republicans, a candidate who has an interpretation of the 14th Amendment could be the next Supreme Court Justice. Also, there will likely be bills in the U.S. Congress which re-interpret the 14th Amendment. 

Neo-Confederates have been hoping to invalidate the 14th Amendment for generations. Their goal may be effectively achieved in the near future. 

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