Riding home today, listening as always to All Things Considered on National Public Radio, I heard an interview with this Ted Hilton, a real estate developer, who is trying to get an initiative on the ballot in California that would deny benefits to the children of illegal aliens.
The way this would work is that they would disallow illegal immigrants from applying for benefits, and further say that children cannot apply themselves, resulting in the children being denied as well. The interviewer suggested that this would deny equal protection to the children who are U. S. citizens under the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Mr. Hilton then said, that no court or law has declared that they were citizens, and that Wonk Kim Ark only applies to alien parents who are “permanently domiciled” in the U. S. While he was not arguing that President Obama was ineligible, he did sound like a birther to the practiced ear.
Certainly the dicta in Wong contradicts the idea that permanent residence was considered a requirement.
I saw this on Orly’s site:
“July 15, 2009
Dear Dr. Taitz,
What legal steps do we take to form a sworn and deputized lawful committee to go to Washington DC to arrest and confine for trial all those who are violating the oaths they have taken to the Constitution of the United States? This would include any elected or appointed person for which we can obtain and have warrants.
Thank you for your contributions to the integrity of our nation and its laws.
Jerry D Kidd”
It’s about 3/4 down on her home page. I have had more than my share of her and her crowd. These people are dangerous.
From a law enforcement perspective: they can’t be arrested until they actually either do something illegal or take a concrete step toward doing something illegal.
So the key is to keep a close watch and wait until the line is crossed. I’m quite sure that in such a case there will be arrests…. just a slightly different picture when it comes to who is doing the arresting.
Will they pull a von Braun and attempt a “citizen’s arrest”?
I tuned in late to this, and I started hearing a rather irate man shouting about Wong Kim Ark and the 14th Amendment
And I thought, “Oh, what have the Birthers done now?”
I was pleasantly surprised that that was not the case, though not pleased to hear the proposal.
I, too, was driving and listening to ATC when I heard Wonk Kim Ark spoken. My stomach did a soft flip because I was hoping the birthers had not invaded NPR.
Who’s Wonk Kin Urk??? Some looney left lib hero apparently.
Must be happy hour.
United States vs. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898) is the relevant case about people born in the United States being citizens. Wong was born in San Francisco to a couple of Chinese subjects. He went to China to visit relatives, and was refused admission to the US on his return. (This was the era of the Chinese Exclusion Acts.) He claimed US citizenship by virtue of the first clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution: “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 Supreme Court, in a 6 to 2 decision, agreed with Wong. Justice Gray’s opinion, on-line at http://supreme.justia.com/us/169/649/case.html is well worth reading.
With respect to those who claim that Obama is not a citizen because his father was a Kenyan citizen, I would point out that neither of Wong’s parents were US citizens.