Meet Wong Kim Ark: “Anchor Baby” Who Won a Key Supreme Court Case (1898)

Wong Kim Ark was born in 1873 in California to parents who came to the U.S. When he was 17, he departed for a temporary visit to China with the intent of returning to his home. Customs allowed him back in, even though the Chinese Exclusion Act barred new immigrants from China. He repeated the trip to China in 1894. When his ship landed in San Francisco, he was denied entry.

He sued for re-entry. His argument was simple: he had birthright citizenship, and therefore could not be denied entry even though the Chinese Exclusion Act was amended to bar anyone of Chinese descent from entering the U.S.

He won his case. The Supreme Court said: “the fundamental rule of citizenship by birth within the dominion of the United States, notwithstanding alienage of parents, has been affirmed, in well considered opinions of the executive departments of the Government since the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.”

The Court cited from congressional hearings on the 14^th Amendment, which created birthright citizenship: “[Sen.] Cowan objected upon the ground that the Mongolian race ought to be excluded, and said: “Is the child of the Chinese immigrant in California a citizen?” [Sen.] Conness, replied: “I voted for the proposition to declare that the children of all parentage whatever, born in California, should be regarded and treated as citizens of the United States, entitled to equal civil rights with other citizens of the United States. . . . We are entirely ready to accept the provision proposed in this Constitutional Amendment that the children born here of Mongolian parents shall be declared by the Constitution of the United States to be entitled to civil rights and to equal protection before the law with others.” And now, Donald Trump and his followers would undo 150 years of basic equality.