October 31, 2018
We awakened yesterday morning to the ping of a news alert bearing ominous news— that Trump planned to do away with birthright citizenship by executive order, in direct contravention of the Fourteenth Amendment. This is part and parcel of a malevolently coordinated attack on Latinx immigrants, which mixes demonizing propaganda, a manufactured crisis justifying military action and a declaration that the emergency necessitates suspending the Constitution .
In the four days since a hateful murderer outraged by HIAS’ assistance to Central American refugees gunned down 11 Jewish Americans; rather than exercise restraint or demonstrating contrition, Trump, his administration and Republican candidates, have continued with anti-Semitic dog whistles and proudly advocated treating migrants fleeing violence like an invading army.
DHS Secretary and distaff Goebbels, Kirstjen Nielsen didn’t utter a word about the need to investigate white supremacists after a week in which one attempted to assassinate all of the leaders of the Democratic Party and another murdered two Black senior citizens in cold blood in broad daylight. Instead Nielsen discussed to plan to send 5200 troops to the Mexican border, stating that they had no plans to shoot the refugees “right now,” but reserving the possibility that American troops could shoot women and children to “defend themselves,” (Source: “DHS chief: Military has ‘no intention’ of shooting at caravan,” by Rachel Ventresca, CNN.com, 10/26/18).
The Trump propaganda network, Fox News, featured hysterical talking heads warning that “entire populations” could be coming to this country bringing diseases like smallpox (which was eradicated in 1980) and leprosy (a disease which has been curable since the 1950’s), (Source: “Migrant caravans won’t bring disease—anti-vaxxers will,” by Angela Chen, TheVerge.com, 10/30/18).
The purpose of this coordinated fear mongering campaign, treating 3000 desperate Latinx migrants like a dangerous invasion is designed to build support for the elimination of birthright citizenship, a bedrock principle of Constitutional law since the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868. The text of the Amendment states that, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” No serious legal scholar, on the right or the left, believes that there is any ambiguity in the language, as evidenced by the Op-Ed co-authored by George Conway III and Neal S. Katyal in yesterday’s Washington Post.
We need to understand that the attack on birthright citizenship is a central tenet of white nationalism. Any proposal to eliminate it is a frontal attack on the 14th Amendment, the amendment which overturned the infamous Dred Scott decision and is the basis for the recognition of Black Americans’ civil rights, (Source: Tsesis, Alexander, “Undermining Inalienable Rights: From Dred Scott to the Rehnquist Court,” Arizona State Law Journal, Vol. 39, 2008).
The 14th Amendment’s due process clause was the doctrinal support in landmark cases that guaranteed broader rights for women (Roe v. Wade) and LGBT people (Lawrence v. Texas). The equal protection clause has been cited as mandating equal treatment under the law for all people of color (Yick Wo v. Hopkins, and most famously, Brown v. Board of Education).
Those who dismiss Trump’s remarks as a mere midterm election gambit are missing the point. Forcing us to refute an idea that should be unthinkable is a victory in itself for white supremacists. That we are arguing about this at all, is a victory for those who see our rights as conditional and our very humanity as debatable.
The sooner we all wake up to the fact that Trump is an amoral monster furiously working to hasten our descent into a fascist, white supremacist state, the better. If we don’t, very soon, we will all be sharing the same nightmare.
#DONTBOOVOTE
#DEFENDTHECONSTITUTION
#DISMANTLEWHITESUPREMACY