“Today the Supreme Court has thankfully reaffirmed a promise this country has kept since 1868: every child born on American soil is an American. That promise was written into the Constitution to answer one of our most shameful moments, the 1857 Dred Scott decision, in which the Court ruled that Black people born here could never be citizens. The Fourteenth Amendment overturned that, and the Court has upheld it repeatedly, with Congress writing it into law twice with the Nationality Act of 1940 and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. Today, that promise stands.
But let me be clear: we never should have been here at all. The citizenship of babies born on American soil in this country should never have been in doubt. The fact that it took the Supreme Court to say so is its own kind of warning. Relief is not the same as safety. A basic constitutional promise should not be something our families have to win back every few years.
This matters deeply here in Montgomery County, where four in seven children have at least one immigrant parent, the vast majority of them born right in the United States. Today’s ruling means their citizenship and their children’s is secure, not subject to the politics of the moment. Maryland was part of the coalition of states that stood up for that principle, and I’m grateful they did.
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Montgomery County will continue working with our partners, including the Gilchrist Immigrant Resource Center, to support immigrant families and ensure every resident knows their rights. You belong here and so do your children.”
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Read the original article at mcgov
