Eastman on Immigration

Professor Eastman debated Western State University School of Law Professor Brennan this evening at a great event put on by WSU's Federalist Society chapter. I was finally able to hear Eastman's famous arguments on immigration and birthright citizenship. Here are a few of the arguments encapsulated:

The Fourteenth Amendment citizenship clause's requirement of birth or naturalization is a necessary but not sufficient condition to citizenship. Most assume that simply being born in the US makes one a citizen. But Eastman argues we must also give effect to the second requirement: "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof." This requirement must mean more than jurisdiction that one born here is subject to, otherwise the language would be rendered a nullity.

There is no case that holds that birth is enough to make one a citizen. The closest we get is a case that says birth will be enough for a chinese immigrant under a treaty that prohibits giving up Chinese citizenship.

To grant birthright citizenship would make folly out of guest worker programs. Guest workers would become permanent workers as soon as they had children: their children would be citizens, and the familial right attached would make any guest worker with a child a permanent worker.

Eastman would remind those who argue that immigrants are good for our economy, since "Americans" don't want to do manual labor, that this system of a "permanent underclass" is conspicuously reminiscent of 18th century plantations. Such a system is a travesty, a grave abuse of our social and economic institutions.

Our constitution is one of bilateral consent. It is an affront to our reason and values that an alien should be able to subvert our laws and unilaterally invoke entitlement to the rights of citizenship. This sort of act is not contemplated by our social compact governmental structure.