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Donald Trump has a problem with the law that gives birthright citizenship to persons born in the United States (US). So much so, that at the beginning of his presidency he wanted the law reviewed. Birthright citizenship comes from the 14th amendment of the US Constitution which provides, in part, as follows, “all persons born or naturalized in the US and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the US and of the State wherein they reside.” Why was this amendment felt necessary? Well, for an answer to that, you’d have to go slightly back in time.

When the US was drafting their Constitution sometime in 1789 or thereabouts, the guiding principle, it would seem, was that “all men are created equal.” But, there was a problem here. The US was, at the time, a nation with thriving slavery aimed at persons of one race. What did they do to justify this abhorrent form of human rights violations, while holding on to the sanctimonious view that “all men are created equal”? They described the people against whom they were perpetrating human rights violations as three-fifths human. In fact, this reference of three-fifths human is actually found in their Constitution. The people referred to as three-fifths human were as such, not intended to be citizens of the US, and since the Bill of Rights in that Constitution, enacted by the 1st to 10th amendments of that Constitution, were only reserved for “citizens of the United States”, it was clear that the persons referred to as three-fifths human, were not entitled to any fundamental rights in the Bill of Rights. The Supreme Court of the US has actually said as much in the notorious case of Dredd Scott vs Sandford.

A civil war was fought right after the decision in Dredd Scott vs Sandford, between the northern states that were seemingly against slavery and the southern states that were out rightly in favour of slavery. The northern states won the civil war resulting in the 14th amendment, that enabled the persons referred to as three-fifths human to become citizens of the US. Mind you, the 14th amendment did NOT do away with the three-fifths human reference. It simply ensured all persons (including the persons referred to as three-fifths humans) had a right to US citizenship, if they were born in the US. As such, a whole race of human beings owe their citizenship and protection of their human rights to the 14th amendment of the US Constitution. This is the same provision that Donald Trump wants abolished.