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Martha S. Jones, JD, PhD Profile picture
@marthasjones_
Aug 21, 2019 • 9 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
It was just a few days ago that the insightful ⁦@CarolJenkins⁩ asked me if I thought a threat to birthright citizenship might re-emerge. I told her the truth: I didn’t think anyone really knew the answer. Well, now we have it. reuters.com/article/us-usa…
You might ask, has anything changed since July 2018 or October 2018 when we last heard threats to birthright citizenship emanating from the President and his agents? I’ll say that I think it has.
We’ve learned is how saber rattling from Washington emboldens low level authorities to act in ways that are formally out front of a White House edict on birthright citizenship. (This is a long-standing insight — in the 1890s Wong Kim Ark was caught similarly by petty officials.)
You likely followed the case of Francisco Erwin Galicia, a US citizen by birthright who was detained for weeks by petty officials who questioned his right to be in the US and move freely about the country. beta.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/07…
Every time a street level official detains, jails or impairs the liberty of a birthright citizen, we are seeing how noise from Washington can drive everyday policy. We see how the integrity of the 14th Amendment is not being tried in high courts or Congress or in the White House.
Today the President reaffirmed a policy that is already playing out on our streets, in our communities. If this is new to you, take a moment to ask your friends, neighbors, and colleagues who are most at risk of scrutiny about how their habits have changed.
Ask Americans how they carry multiple forms of ID and lawyers phone numbers on their persons. Ask how their families have contingent plans in case of illegal detention. Ask about the places they no longer frequent, the outing they forego, the liberty they have been deprived of.
For those who imagine that this abrogation of birthright won’t reach into their lives, read this deeply insightful piece from @thrasherxy who shows how our lives are intertwined under the rule of a state that is empowered to stop citizens at will. nytimes.com/2019/08/20/opi…
Be forewarned. I will not abide snark on the question of birthright. I will not tolerate smugness. I will not sanction facile claims that the President is neither smart nor savvy. Understand: lives are being deeply troubled with this talk, whatever the Constitution might allow.

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More from @marthasjones_

Martha S. Jones, JD, PhD Profile picture
Aug 5, 2020
Tomorrow , August 6, we mark 55 years since the Voting Rights Act became law. ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=…
For the women of Vanguard, this was their 15th and 19th Amendments rolled into one - giving teeth to the promise of voting rights that did not accommodate racism or sexism. basicbooks.com/titles/martha-…
It had been a long an arduous journey to the Voting Rights Act, one travelled by sheroes like Mary McLeod Bethune. Bethune had been born during Reconstruction and faced off against the KKK over voting rights in the 1920s. smithsonianmag.com/history/mary-m…
Read 11 tweets
Martha S. Jones, JD, PhD Profile picture
Aug 29, 2019
If you’re waking up with questions about the new USCIS Policy Alert, like I am, you can start with the text of the alert here, courtesy of ⁦@CNN⁩. cnn.com/2019/08/28/pol…
It’s complicated; be careful about from whom you take advice about its meaning, implications, and effects. I’m following immigration law experts and practitioners @leegelernt and @prof_kari_hong. Love to hear who you’re following for expertise (rather than superficial punditry.)
A point of information. Who can claim Birthright Citizenship in the US is a matter of fact *and* of law. For the purposes of citizenship, the US is a physical territory and also a legal fiction. A child can be born in, for example, Germany but be deemed born in the US, by law.
Read 8 tweets
Martha S. Jones, JD, PhD Profile picture
Aug 17, 2019
So much that is important, and will be part of our Sunday brunch talk here in Greenport, courtesy of ⁦@nhannahjones⁩. Indulge me a few lines. #1619Project nytimes.com/interactive/20…
“It is we who have been the perfecters of this democracy.” - @nhannahjones
“The United States is a nation founded on both an ideal and a lie.” - @nhannahjones
Read 12 tweets
Martha S. Jones, JD, PhD Profile picture
Mar 16, 2019
Fascinating thread from @agordonreed on the language we use, the word choices we make, when writing the histories of enslaved people. Her example comes from writing the lives of Sally Hemings and her family. @profgabrielle @DainaRameyBerry
A starting point when it come to word choice is an understanding of the terms used by our subjects and those around them. How did enslaved women speak of and about themselves? What sorts of words, categories, and concepts did they rely upon? How did that change over time and why?
That is just a beginning. We write to convey meaning to readers, including other historians - employ terms already in use, with established meaning so as to join that on-going conversation. And sometimes we depart from existing word trends to underscore an interpretive departure.
Read 11 tweets
Martha S. Jones, JD, PhD Profile picture
Feb 20, 2019
The heart of the matter is not whether we engage in public debate. Of course we do. It is not whether we attend to political, diplomatic and military history. Of course we do. This is a debate over who sets the terms of the nation’s history and from what point of view we tell it.
I am a legal historian who writes about citizenship (for specialists and a broad public.) I write from the point of view of black Americans; for some that will always mark my work as “esoteric.” To that I say I write the past, with rigor and integrity, to illuminate our own time.
I urge us not to fall for this trap. There’s not debate about whether historians are engaged with broad audiences. The debate is about who our audience is and what they need and want to know and learn. Own your so-called esoteric work; be clear that the margin in now the center.
Read 5 tweets
Martha S. Jones, JD, PhD Profile picture
Oct 30, 2018
1/ I’ll weigh in here to say a few things about this issue. The first is that this issue is not one that has been directly tested or addressed by our courts. And the final interpretation here rests with #SCOTUS.
2/ The President proposes to interpret that part of the 14th Amendment which excludes persons not subject to US jurisdiction from Birthright Citizenship. His view as I take it is that children born to unauthorized immigrants are excluded from Birthright under this exception.
3/ We have long relied upon the #SCOTUS decision of Wong Kim Ark (1898) for the view that even the children of noncitizens, when born in the US, are citizens by Birthright.
Read 9 tweets

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