The southern border crisis continues to get worse and worse resulting in questions arising about the citizenship status of illegal immigrants entering the country.
The Supreme Court of the United States recently handed down a ruling regarding birthright citizenship status of those living in the American Somoa U.S. territory.
SCOTUS denied the request to hear a case brought on by a group of three American Samoans living in Utah that requested they receive full citizenship status as denying it goes against their constitutional rights.
U.S. Supreme Court won't hear American Samoans' bid for full citizenship https://t.co/g0rgZFqWcq pic.twitter.com/sYsazphGjQ
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 18, 2022
The basis of their argument was that although they are residents of the United States, they do not have the same rights as U.S. citizens. Rights such as being able to hold certain jobs, run for office and vote in elections.
The case challenged the hundred year old set of Supreme Court precedents called the “Insular Cases,” which decided the citizenship status of residents of U.S. territories acquired during the Spanish-American War.
The Hill reported on how the life of the case.
“The challengers, who were backed by a Utah-based nonprofit group, won the first round of litigation in 2019. This prompted an appeal by the U.S. government, which was joined by the government of American Samoa.
“On appeal, a Denver-based federal appellate court found that the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment was ambiguous on the question of American Samoans’ birthright citizenship. The divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit further ruled that the Insular Cases were still good law, even as they acknowledged those cases to be ‘racist’ and ‘disreputable.’
“The 10th Circuit panel said the authority to grant citizenship to people born in American Samoa resides with Congress, which previously conferred the right on Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.”
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