Museum panel explores the impact of birthright citizenship, challenged by Trump ...Middle East

At a recent panel hosted by the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles, Asian American immigration experts, activists and community members spoke in defense of birthright citizenship — a constitutional right that guarantees all U.S.-born children are citizens, regardless of their parents’ status.

“In our Asian American and Pacific Islander community, at least 70% are born outside the U.S. In our community organizations, we advise people, if they can, get naturalized. It will give some element of protection. But now we’re also seeing that you can be de-naturalized; you can have your citizenship taken away,” said author and journalist Helen Zia at the April 16 panel, held at the Pico House in downtown L.A.

“We now live in, I have to say, a lawless society … think about this country today, where so many are citizens because of birthright. Now that is being challenged.”

Birthright citizenship establishes that any person born in the U.S. is automatically a citizen by birth, regardless of their parents’ status, and is a constitutional right enshrined in the 14th Amendment. The Supreme Court affirmed this in the 1898 case, “U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark.”

Zia, who founded The Vincent Chin Institute and has long spoken out against anti-Asian hate, called the landmark decision a testament to the “bravery of fighting for the right not just to be a citizen of America, but to be a full human being. Because that’s what citizenship offers.”

In 1890, San Francisco-born Wong Kim Ark was returning to the U.S. from a trip to China, but was denied entry under the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The 21-year-old’s case went all the way to the Supreme Court where, in a 6-2 decision, the court ruled that because Wong was American-born, and his Chinese immigrant parents were not “employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under the Emperor of China,” the 14th Amendment makes him a U.S. citizen. That decision — holding the citizenship clause should be interpreted “in light of the common law” — has since never been disturbed.

But on day one of his term, President Trump issued an executive order that would void birthright citizenship, arguing that the 14th Amendment “has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the U.S.” Citizenship is a “priceless and profound gift,” the Trump order reads, and should have tougher restrictions — messaging in line with his administration’s immigration crackdown.

The effort to nullify birthright citizenship — currently blocked in the courts — would deny U.S. citizenship privileges to children born after Feb. 19, whose parents are in the country unlawfully. To qualify, at least one parent would need to be a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident.

A Pew Research Center survey revealed that more Americans — 56% — disapprove of Trump’s executive order. Of the 43% of those who support it, 72% of those are mostly Republicans, research shows.

“The question of who is American and who can be an American affects all of us,” said Michael Truong, executive director of the Chinese American Museum. “We must work together to safeguard our civil rights and freedoms for all.”

At the museum’s panel, leaders agreed that Trump’s order challenging the 14th Amendment, proposed since his first term, would not be easy to pass. The administration has since been hit with multiple lawsuits from at least 22 states, plus immigration rights groups and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Law professor Hiroshi Motomura, co-director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA Law, was confident the order would be struck down.

“We’re reinterpreting the 14th Amendment, and that’s not limited by time,” said Motomura. “If this survives the Supreme Court, then many of us are not citizens… since this just goes back and undoes (a century) of history.”

Even if the order died in the courts, the Trump administration “will still win because (they can) make people afraid, feel like they don’t belong, and sort of raise the possibility that people who thought they were Americans really aren’t,” Motomura said. “And that has a lot of ‘fear value’ for the White House.”

Connie Chung Joe, CEO of Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California, emphasized that a decision reversing birthright citizenship would have a “disproportionately high impact” on the majority foreign-born AAPI community.

“We already know Asian Americans face a racial stereotype of being treated as the ‘forever foreigner.’ We are already seen as outsiders in this country, and we saw it rear its ugly head during the height of anti-Asian hate, where we saw over 11,000 reported incidents of hate crimes and incidents; people told repeatedly to ‘go to back to your country’,” Joe said at the panel.

“All of us as AAPIs will have a heightened scrutiny of being seen as outsiders. The chances are, as we go about our regular day, we will be questioned more. Our American-ness, our right to be in this country, will more likely be scrutinized, and we will more likely be targeted as outsiders.”

Zia also urged communities to be vigilant, have immigration lawyer contacts, and carry documentation if possible, because “targeting is going to continue to happen” under the current administration.

“If we don’t have at least the shell of the protection of citizenship, then all bets are off.”

Norman Wong, who is Wong Kim Ark’s great-grandson, gave his humble thanks for his relative’s fight in the courts — one many people don’t know about — that established a precedent.

“Like my great-grandfather, I too was born in the U.S.A., in the same city of San Francisco, more than 75 years after him. We are both Americans — but unlike him, my citizenship has never been challenged. His willingness to stand up and fight made the difference.”

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Wong encouraged attendees to “stand together as a nation of immigrants.”

“Are we to be a nation of stateless people, with children born to no country? We as Americans need to embrace each other and cherish each new life born in the U.S.A.”

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