“Maybe You Shouldn’t Be in the Country”: Precedent for Kicking Out Americans

President Trump joined a hate-filled union leader from the 1880s when he said, with respect to NFL players who remain in the locker room during the national anthem, “maybe you shouldn’t be in the country.” 

Here is what Dennis Kearny, an anti-immigrant labor leader from California, said in 1879: “Before you and the world we declare that the Chinaman must leave our shores.”

Kearny’s statement went beyond immigration. It also applied to boys and girls born on U.S. soil to lawfully admitted residents who emigrated from China.

Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco in 1868. His father (Wong Si Ping) and mother (Wee Lee) were immigrants from China. They weren’t U.S. citizens. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act made them ineligible for citizenship.

Meanwhile, Wong Kim Ark worked in San Francisco as a cook. He visited China in 1890, likely to find a suitable bride (as was customary).

When he returned, he was denied re-entry. A revised and more restrictive version of the Chinese Exclusion Act made native-born descendants of Chinese subjects ineligible to enter the U.S.

This gave rise to a landmark case involving the Constitution’s Citizenship Clause. The Supreme Court, in U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark, ruled that the guarantee of birthright citizenship “applies to children of foreigners present on American soil.”

President Trump has taken the issue beyond kneeling for the national anthem. 

Even in one of America’s worst moments— the unconscionable internment of Japanese-American citizens— no person was removed from our country.
It's this simple: No one born on U.S. soil can be removed or excluded from this country-- whether they are Nazis, Socialists, Trump or Bernie supporters, liberals, conservatives ... or NFL players who protest during a game.
We are all Americans.

Today, President Trump challenged our fidelity to the constitution's Citizenship Clause, a core tenet of our United States of America.