Words have meanings - especially when it comes to Amendments to The Constitution of the United States!

 

A pocket guide to why Trump is correct on birthright citizenship

By Andrea Widburg www.americanthinker.com

I was having lunch with some conservative gal pals yesterday, and the subject got around to birthright citizenship. I was quickly able to sum up the arguments in favor of Donald Trump’s position (many of which have been made on this site), so I thought I’d give you a handy-dandy guide to these arguments.

The predicate for this discussion, of course, is this clause from the 14th Amendment:

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. (Emphasis mine.)

One. English common law, which underpins American law, held that an invader’s children are not citizens. To the extent that the illegal aliens in America have not entered through invitation or by any legal process, they are foreign invaders. Therefore, as a matter of ancient legal principles, they do not get to complete the process of conquest by having their children automatically become citizens with the right to affect elections or claim benefits.

Two. Illegal aliens are not people who “reside” in the United States of America. Residence doesn’t simply mean that you are currently in a place. For example, when I’m sitting in an airport waiting to board a plane, I do not “reside” in the airport. “Residence” has a legal meaning that, again, is based upon whether you are a legally recognized occupant of American soil (e.g., a green card holder, an acknowledged refugee or asylee, someone with temporary protected status, etc.) or an invader.

Three. The 14th Amendment does not simply say that to be “born” in America is sufficient. Instead, the person must also be subject to American jurisdiction, which is something different from being obligated to obey American laws while on American soil. If I visit Germany and decide to beat up someone, I’ll be arrested and subject to Germany’s limited jurisdiction for my having violated that law, but I will not be a German citizen, entitled to the benefits and burdens of German citizenship, and no one would say I was.

That is, “jurisdiction” is not the same as “being on a nation’s soil and obligated to obey the laws.” Instead, it’s about a person’s birth fealty to another nation, a fealty unchanged by a legal process, including a formal declaration of allegiance. (Note: The illegal immigrants have made their allegiance clear with their decades of waving their birth nation’s flags at pro-illegal immigration rallies, most recently in Dallas.)

Four. The word “alien” has a specific legal meaning: “The term ‘alien’ means any person not a citizen or national of the United States.” For decades, though, leftists have successfully pushed to refer to those here illegally as “undocumented migrants.” Leftists focus on the adjective “undocumented,” saying that no person is “illegal,” so their term gives people dignity. That’s sleight of hand. The real purpose is to substitute “migrants” for “aliens.”

Why does this matter? Because one of the 14th Amendment’s drafters, Sen. Jacob Howard, whose intended purpose was to give citizenship to blacks whose parents had been forcibly imported to the United States and who had no other national fealty, stated explicitly that the amendment would not apply to “persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens...”

What the drafters intended matters. Ancient rules of statutory construction (going back, again, to English common law) mandate that, if a statute’s words are ambiguous, you must look to the drafters’ intention.

The people who voluntarily enter here illegally are “aliens,” not “migrants.” Our government never intended to hand out citizenship to those who voluntarily came here illegally, whether on their own two feet or nicely packed in their mother’s womb. I hope this helps whether you’re talking to friends who truly want to know or need the facts at your fingertips when dealing with a pro-illegal immigration advocate. (BTW, you’ll never change the latter’s mind. Your hope in these debates is that your reasoned, informed, and civilized arguments change the minds of less doctrinaire people auditing the conversation.)

 

When it comes to the horrific destructive subject of illegal immigration - we are on a collision course of suicide!

 

Catholic Organizations and Open Borders

By Rajan Laad www.americanthinker.com

Last week Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington received backlash when she injected politics into her sermon during a prayer meeting with President Trump, Vice President Vance, and their respective families in attendance.

The bishop urged President Trump to be merciful towards gay, lesbian, and transgender children and illegal aliens. Many were outraged by her casual mention of transgender children as if their condition was a natural phenomenon. 

In reality, transgender children are victims of coercion and brainwashing by sinister forces and lack the maturity or life experience to make such a life-altering decision. Yet instead of protecting innocent children from this barbarity, the bishop was normalizing it and siding with the child predators.

There was also outrage over the open border advocacy by the bishop. 

The bishop was lambasted by fair-minded people but venerated and celebrated by liberals. She hit the headlines and appeared on various TV shows and was interviewed by The New Yorker.

By abusing her position, the bishop showed no regard for tradition, decorum, or the sanctity of her position. This is common with narcissists. She must be thrilled with the publicity she is receiving. Perhaps that was her goal to begin with.

This week more religious organizations thrust themselves into politics. Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s Refugee & Immigration Services Program uploaded a video that guides illegal aliens in the country illegally on how to dodge US immigration law. In the video, immigration attorney Barbara Graham advises illegal aliens on how to thwart authorities conducting lawful investigations at their workplaces.

“Do not panic, and do not run away. If you are frightened and feel like you need to leave, you can calmly walk toward the exit,” Graham advised.

“If you are stopped, you may ask if you are free to leave. If the officer says no, do not try to exit the building. If you are questioned, you may tell them you want to remain silent,” she continued.

Graham also advises illegal aliens to “refuse to show identify documents,” refuse to say what country they are from, and refuse to sign any paperwork without an attorney present.

According to a ProPublica audit of Catholic Charities USA’s finances, the 114-year-old organization received just shy of $2 million in federal grants in 2021.

According to the New York Times, the group’s local affiliates were taking in a total of nearly $2.9 billion annually from the government -- representing about 62% of its $4.67 billion annual revenue in 2010.

The Catholic Charities USA's website, which looks like it's run by liberal activists, offers services such as Citizenship Application, DACA Application, DACA Renewal, Deportation Defense for Green Card Holders, Deportation Defense for Non-Lawful Permanent Residents, etc.

The Catholic Charities USA isn’t the only Catholic group to advocate open borders.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) also criticized President Trump's executive orders relating to immigration and capital punishment, claiming it would harm “the most vulnerable among us.”

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) president Archbishop Timothy Broglio wrote the following: 

“Some provisions contained in the executive orders, such as those focused on the treatment of immigrants and refugees, foreign aid, expansion of the death penalty, and the environment, are deeply troubling and will have negative consequences, many of which will harm the most vulnerable among us."

Bishop Mark J. Seitz (USCCB), Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM (CHA), and Kerry Alys Robinson (CCUSA) issued a statement that “Human Dignity is Not Dependent on a Person's Citizenship or Immigration Status”

This group has also received taxpayer funds.

According to audited financial statements reviewed by America magazine, the bishops group received around $122.6 million in 2022 and about $129.6 million in 2023 for refugee-related services.

The NY Post revealed the organization's Migration and Refugee Services department is responsible for resettling approximately 18% of the refugees who enter the U.S. each year.

So what do we make of this?

These religious groups either don't entirely comprehend the magnitude of the issue or they lack empathy for citizens who suffer when illegal aliens flood their precincts. 

When illegal aliens were bussed by GOP governors to wealthy neighborhoods, they were eventually rejected. Even New York City, which is a sanctuary jurisdiction, began rejecting migrants after the numbers were overwhelming.

All the burden of illegal aliens is placed on poor or working-class neighborhoods. Consequently, illegal aliens end up consuming resources funded by taxpaying citizens. This could be an emergency hospital ward at a hospital or real estate meant for free movement such as pavements or parks, etc.

There is also the question of jobs. Illegal aliens often agree to work for little money and no benefits. The result is citizens either suffer job loss or a depression in wages.

When illegal aliens inundate any neighborhood and outnumber the citizens, the culture is diluted. 

This demographic change has other consequences. If numerous aliens are granted voting rights, the impact of the votes of citizens is reduced. This is what has occurred in NY and California, where a potted plant with the letter D can defeat the most capable Republican.

The victims in all these cases will be working-class people. A country, a state, a city, or a county is a finite unit with finite resources that are planned based on the number of citizens living in that locality. If the population suffers a sudden surge, citizens suffer.

The other risks of an open border are human trafficking and the smuggling of dangerous and illicit drugs. 

Yet these religious organizations seem to have no compassion for the working-class individuals, the trafficked victims, or those who suffer from drug addiction or who perish due to overdoses.

The religious organizations are suggesting that these illegal aliens are poor and helpless and come to the U.S. because they have no choice. But this could be also true for other varieties of lawbreakers. Some lawbreakers are from poor neighborhoods and broken families. A country has laws and there must be no leniency for violation of these laws. If one starts making exceptions, else there will be utter chaos. 

Sadly, the members of these Catholic organizations didn't show a similar focus on punishing pedophile priests within their organization and protecting innocent young victims.

It would be wrong to assume that these Catholic groups are going rogue by advocating open borders. Early last week, Pope Francis attacked President Trump’s plan to deport illegal aliens calling it a "disgrace."

But the Vatican City where the Pope lives is surrounded by imposing walls, is restricted only to citizens and only invitees are allowed to stay overnight. There were also reports of the Vatican cracking down on illegal entries. 

These groups don't practice what they preach.

This is a reminder of how far religious institutions have departed from their core values and have been infiltrated by sinister forces. 

It is troubling that these organizations receive funds from taxpaying citizens and at the same time advocate ideas that will harm citizens.

The Trump administration must look into either reforming or defunding these organizations.

 

Actions taken by the current lawful Administration is making an impact and will continue to do so in the future!

 

As Dems engage in performative weeping, illegal immigration’s real victims celebrate the round-ups

By Andrea Widburg www.americanthinker.com

My real-me Facebook page, where I have Democrat friends I met growing up and living in the San Francisco Bay Area, is awash in posts about the horrors of Trump’s round-ups. The foul Holocaust cosplay is on full display, with people advising each other how to hide illegal aliens as if they’re saving them from the Holocaust.

We’ve also all seen Selena Gomez’s now-deleted and very badly acted grief for “her people.” In truth, every one of these leftists has long turned a blind eye to the real victims: The people whose lives violent illegal aliens destroyed. It turns out these people, most of whom are minorities themselves, are celebrating.

The Air Force’s decision to erase the Tuskegee Airman in response to Trump’s order to remove DEI institutions from the American military introduced me to a phrase I’d never heard before but loved instantly: “malicious compliance.” That means to comply with the letter of the law or regulation, but to do so in a way that totally violates the spirit.

As I look at the performative grief over illegal aliens, it struck me that we can coin a new term for that, too: “malicious altruism.” This is the kind of behavior that looks loving and generous, but that is, instead, terribly destructive—and, importantly, the actors know or should know that the harm flowing from their supposed altruism is infinitely greater than the purported benefits. Even as these malicious people weep for a favored victim group, they know or should know that their acts will cause terrible harm to a much larger—and more deserving—cohort of people.

Keeping that principle in mind, malicious altruism is the only way to describe the Democrats’ outrage that Trump is finally deporting truly vile criminals who have been terrorizing not the nice neighborhoods in which my lefty acquaintances live but minority neighborhoods. It turns out that the left’s ostensibly beloved minorities are not on board with having their neighborhoods flooded with murderers, rapists, pedophiles, drug cartel members, and Satan worshippers.

As just one example, in New York City, minorities who are American citizens or legal immigrants are cheering on the ICE raids:

New York City residents in Hispanic and black communities that supported President Trump in huge numbers in the 2024 election hailed Tuesday’s local immigration raids that nabbed scores of suspected heinous criminals.

Starting in the Bronx — where Trump’s support surged 35% between 2020 and 2024 — heavily armed federal immigration agents stormed through the city, targeting migrants with warrants for murder, kidnapping and other heinous crimes, police sources told The Post.

Among those arrested was Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, 25, an alleged ringleader of the notorious Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua whom immigration officers took into custody at an Ogden Avenue apartment in the Bronx.

“Oh, thank God they got him,” said a resident who lives near the complex, visibly relieved that the violent thug was taken off the streets.

Elsewhere in the borough, locals expressed similar sentiments.

One of the worst things about collectivism is that, once having labeled people, it assumes that they are all identical in thought and deed. I saw this when the Democrats forced Obamacare on America. The middle- and upper-middle-class solons behind the idea insisted that it would make the poorest of the poor happy.

In fact, I happened to know that it wouldn’t. I have an acquaintance who, through poor life choices, is among the poorest of the poor. She was happy to get cheap insurance, but she was alone in this. All her friends viewed $25-50 monthly insurance payments as a burden because they’d been getting top-of-the-line free healthcare simply by showing up at the ER...something they, and many others, continue to do. Their goals and values were not what Democrats assumed they were. They felt the $50 was better spent on pot and booze.

In the same way, leftists assume that every non-white person in America loves illegal immigration. They ignore the fact that what people who are not criminals really love is living in safe communities. It’s true that America may have to grapple with the need for more legal farm workers (although even Snopes concedes current problems in the fields are not as severe as activists claim), but it’s clear that the people in the trenches, the ones living with illegal aliens who are making the communities unsafe and unaffordable, are happy to see them gone.