To our Senators and Representatives in Congress:

Birthright citizenship is based on a mistaken interpretation of the Constitution. The Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment provides that:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

This Amendment was passed after the Civil War in order to make it clear that slaves who had been freed were now U.S. citizens. The Senators who wrote the Amendment did not intend it to mean that everyone born here is a citizen. 

The Heritage Foundation’s legal experts have studied the history of the Amendment, the statements of those who wrote the Amendment, the laws Congress passed on citizenship at the time, and the legal cases about the Amendment. They have determined that we are not required by the Constitution to grant birthright citizenship.

In light of their research, and as American citizens who care about their country and want to uphold its constitutional principles, we want to tell you that we are against birthright citizenship, and encourage you to make it stop as soon as possible.

Only then will we be able to enforce our laws and start moving towards conservative immigration policy that will make our country safer, more prosperous, and easier to enter for people who legally want to become citizens here.

Thank you, and God bless America.

Signed,