SOUTH CAROLINA (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — South Carolina’s Republican Attorney General is taking on birthright citizenship. AG Alan Wilson told NewsNation this week that the 14th Amendment, which historically guaranteed citizenship to all born or naturalized in the US, has been misinterpreted for far too long.
Wilson is one of several attorneys general supporting an executive order from President Donald Trump that eliminates birthright citizenship. The AG argued that leaders who drafted the amendment more than 100 years ago had very specific intentions.
“That amendment was rightfully designed to bestow citizenship on emancipated slaves, which needed to happen, but has been misinterpreted over the last 160 years,” said Wilson.
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Eighteen states have signed onto a brief supporting Trump’s executive order. Wilson told NewsNation the amendment has been used to “incentivize the ridiculous notion that somebody can come to the United States in the dead of night, drop a child like an anchor like a boat drops an anchor, and all of a sudden they have been bestowed citizenship for henceforth evermore.”
Twenty-two states are challenging Trump’s executive order, arguing any elimination of birthright citizenship is in clear violation of what is guaranteed by the US Constitution. The ACLU of South Carolina, which is also opposed to the order, told Queen City News any changes to current law could chip away at other rights guaranteed by the amendment.
“The 14th amendment is also where all citizens get the right to equal protection under the law, and if we don’t stand firm on this first attack, then other parts of that amendment will fail,” said Paul Bowers with the ACLU.
The case will be taken up by the US Supreme Court, but the order remains on hold after it was temporarily blocked by a federal judge in Massachusetts.
