6 Lies About Immigrants Trump Hopes You Believe

As a native citizen of this great land, I’m entitled to certain inalienable rights. Everyone’s saying I was endowed with those rights by my Creator. It’s tremendous. Just fantastic, really.

While I have more Native American DNA than most US Senators, I’m only “native” to this land by virtue of the fact that I was born here. There is no doubt as to my citizenship status: I was born at a very young age in Houston, Texas, USA, in 1976, to two native-born American citizens.

And that last part doesn’t even matter! Since 1868, the question of anyone’s parents’ citizenship has been irrelevant. Before 1868, there might have been an inquiry as to my race, my parents’ citizenship, and their status as enslaved or free. But through the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, the fact that I was born here is the sole determinative factor as to whether I am a citizen of the United States.

That has been our nation’s law for literally 150 years. It’s given countless tired and poor immigrants, huddled in masses as they’re wont to do, a generational finish line. If you’re yearning to give your children a chance at class mobility, otherwise unattainable in your home country, find a way to get to America.

If your kids are born here, they’re Americans. End of inquiry. They’re entitled to all of the rights, privileges, and obligations of every other American citizen, even if you never realize that destiny yourself.