How Wong Kim Ark’s legacy reignited the fight for birthright citizenship
San Francisco, California – Growing up in San Francisco, Sandra Wong and her siblings knew little about their father's Chinese American family. They had seen
San Francisco, California – Growing up in San Francisco, Sandra Wong and her siblings knew little about their father's Chinese American family. They had seen old photos of their grandparents, but not much else. “For most of our lives, we just knew very cryptic information,” Sandra said. Only in 2011, at her father's funeral, did Sandra find a clue about her family's legacy. Among the remembrances was a newspaper clipping that alluded to a great-grandfather who fought an important legal battle. “I was filled with surprise, confusion, curiosity,” Sandra recalled, having perused the article with interest.
But the story drifted into the background of Sandra's busy life. She was a mother, after all, and her hands were full raising two kids, looking after her mom and working part-time. That changed, though, when Republican Donald Trump began his first successful bid to be United States president in 2015. In August of that year, Trump debuted plans to repeal a long-established constitutional right: birthright citizenship. Established under the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution, that principle guarantees citizenship to virtually all children born on US soil.
It was also the centrepiece of a 19th-century court case concerning a man whose name would become synonymous with birthright citizenship: Wong Kim Ark. He is Sandra's great-grandfather. Trump's campaign to end birthright citizenship has catapulted Sandra and her siblings into the national spotlight, transforming them into ambassadors for their family's legacy. “It was a bit strange because we haven't really even processed the information,” Sandra said. On June 30, the US Supreme Court upheld the precedent that Wong set back in 1898, protecting the right to citizenship even for children born to immigrants.
Wong's case was cited in the decision more than 100 times. But Trump has pledged to keep fighting birthright citizenship, as part of his crackdown on immigration. He called on Congress to amend the Constitution, and this week, Trump even asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision. His campaign poses the most dire threat to Wong's legacy in more than a century.
The BriefWire