The Final Frontier

John is right and wrong on the numbers of births to illegals. First point, it is not just illegals but those that are here on tourist and other Visas that have kids that then become citizens and give them(the parents) a hook into residency. Second the estimate of kids born to illegals is closer to 300,000 and that is more new born kids than most of the States have born to citizens...more than 90% of the States. That is a big number added to the mix.

Also, if the Military can't protect the borders of the Nation, what are they there for? If the Military plays no role in protecting the Nations borders, maybe an invading power (Russians, Chinese, NORKs, whoever) should just have put on Hawaiian and Bermuda shorts and then parachute out to conquer...then we would would never hear "Wolverines!" echoing from the Rockies...

1. There is a rule of legal construction against considering language superfluous - the words are there to mean something.
2. Over 300 babies were born on Ellis Island, technically part of New Jersey, but those babies were not considered citizens because their parents had not yet become subject to the jurisdiction thereof.
3. John should know better than continue to use ad hominums pointing out the racial animus frequently attached to this issue, all to distract from the good faith arguments of his opponents.
4. If a bunch of folks approaching the border say we don't care about your stinkin' laws, we're coming in for economic reconquista, how is that different from anchor babies being the children of invaders or foreign soldiers?

I'm not sure how the President plans to implement a new citizenship policy by executive order, but it strikes me that he could do so. Here is a hypothetical.

I would think that the executive branch regularly makes citizenship determinations. An example would be a person applying for a passport. The President could issue and executive order directing executive personnel to not issue passports, or other documents, or take other actions predicated on a person's citizenship, where the person at issue was born in the US to a mother illegal alien mother.

I would think that the affected person could then bring a lawsuit to compel the issuance of the passport (or other action), and the federal court could then decide whether the person is a citizen. Such a decision could then be appealed, ultimately to SCOTUS.

This seems a perfectly reasonable path for the President to take.

Contrary to John Yoo's suggestion, this issue was not considered "settled" for over a hundred years until an activist Justice on the Warren Court wrote some dicta in a footnote on an unrelated issue.

John Yoo and Seth Mandel. Not exactly the Red Meat addition before the election.

Now I'm depressed.

More like the Anti-Trump Purple Meat edition.

Perhaps Michelle Malkin and David Horowitz or Joel Pollak would have been a better choice.