Birthright citizenship supporters get the law wrong by ignoring obvious evidence

Legal scholars debate 14th Amendment citizenship clause, but historical evidence challenges automatic birthright citizenship for children of illegal aliens.

Also, glaringly absent from most analyses is the Civil Rights Act of 1866 in which Congress first defined the limits on birthright citizenship and which served as the basis for the 14th Amendment.  Amy Swearer is a former senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation.

Supporters of birthright citizenship ignore the contrary evidence that shows their interpretation is wrong. The language in the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment says "all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof" are citizens.    

Yet Yoo and others claim anyone born in the U.S. is a citizen, no matter the legal status of their parents. They dismiss any contrary position as a modern reinvention promulgated by a few outlier academics at the Claremont Institute. But there are many other scholars who have added their voices to a growing body of scholarship that runs counter to that preferred interpretation.