Press Release - The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Civil and Human Rights Leaders Announce the Formation of Americans for Constitutional Citizenship
A Coalition to Preserve American Citizenship for Those Born in the U.S.
For Immediate Release
Contact: Scott Westbrook Simpson, 202.466.2061, simpson@civilrights.org
January 5, 2011
Washington,
DC –Today,
civil and human rights organizations announced the formation of Americans for Constitutional
Citizenship, a diverse group of civil and human rights
organizations and distinguished Americans that are dedicated to preserving the
integrity of our nation’s Constitution and its guarantee of citizenship for
those born in the United States. This new coalition has come together to oppose
– in the strongest possible terms – any legislation at the state or federal
level that would seek to undermine the citizenship guarantee of the U.S.
Constitution.
Earlier in
the day, a group of state legislators proposed state-level legislation to
subvert the longstanding guarantees of the 14th amendment by denying
standard birth certificates to the children of undocumented immigrants. In
announcing the coalition, Wade Henderson, president of The Leadership
Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said that “for the first time since the
end of the Civil War, these legislators want to pass state laws that would
create two tiers of citizens -- a modern-day caste system -- with potentially
of millions of natural-born Americans being treated as somehow less than
entitled to the equal protection of the laws that our nation has struggled so
hard to guarantee.”
The diverse
coalition’s membership includes The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human
Rights, ACLU, NAACP, Center for American Progress, Asian American Justice
Center, Southern Poverty Law Center, the Opportunity Agenda, National Council
of La Raza, LULAC, National Immigration Forum, NALEO, American Immigration
Council, American Immigration Lawyers Association, MALDEF, and more.
The new coalition
asserts that 14th Amendment is the cornerstone of American civil
rights and the foundation of American identity.
Leaders of
the coalition issued the following statements:
“The plain
and unequivocal language of the 14th Amendment was meant to forever settle the
question of what makes somebody a U.S. citizen and a citizen of each state, and
it made clear that states can never again seek to create an underclass of
Americans living among us.” -Wade
Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
“What the
intolerant legislators proposed this morning is an intolerable and unwarranted
assault on our Constitution, on our founding values, and on our very existence
as a united nation. Their theory, apparently developed after much
supposed research, would call into question the citizenship of generations of
Americans, including historical leaders, and would impede the free interstate
mobility that has become ubiquitous in the twenty-first century United States."
- Thomas Saenz,
president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund
“The 14th
Amendment made it very clear that indeed African Americans were full citizens
of the United States. But the 14th Amendment should not be left with the
Dred Scott decision and the Reconstruction era – or even the Jim Crow era - as
it has been held to apply to Japanese Americans during WWII and Chinese
American immigrants and others. As such, it is deeply concerning to us
that those who have such a narrow partisan agenda are focusing in on very
recklessly opening the 14th Amendment – established law in our country – to
bring a new form of discrimination in our society that clearly contradicts our
Constitution.” - Hilary
Shelton, director of the NAACP’s Washington Bureau
“The 14th
Amendment and its guarantee of citizenship to all children born in the United
States has played a critical role in the special character of this country.
Many Americans have fought, sacrificed and died to deliver on the promise of
the 14th Amendment. To try to alter this amendment flies in the face of the
landmark 1898 case U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark and the Constitution. This debate is
about our values as Americans and the wisdom of undermining a principle that is
at the very heart of our Constitution."- Karen Narasaki, president and
executive director of the Asian American Justice Center
“The attempt
to redefine what citizenship means in this country is an affront to our
founding fathers' vision for the United States of America. I urge my fellow
legislators in Arizona and around the country to reject these measures and hold
true to the principles of freedom and democracy created by our founding
fathers.” - Arizona
State Senator Kyrsten Sinema
“The
Fourteenth Amendment is one of America's greatest civil rights
achievements. By setting a clear, objective constitutional basis for
citizenship placed this vital issue beyond the reach politicians and
judges. The Supreme Court has made clear for more than a century that the
constitutional citizenship clause makes all who are born here and subject to
our law citizens of our country. Any political attempt to tinker with
that principle is unconstitutional.”- Walter Dellinger, former Assistant Attorney General and
head of the Office of Legal Counsel
“The
Constitution guarantees American citizenship to every person born in the United
States as an essential principle of equality - in America, our citizenship does
not depend on who our parents are. We must reject any attempt to erode the
fundamental values of fairness and equality enshrined in the 14th
Amendment." - Lucas
Guttentag, director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project
The call may be downloaded in MP3 format by clicking here.
