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Floor Speech
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Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I spoke on the Senate floor on December 11 about birthright citizenship--the guarantee contained in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that all persons born in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are deemed citizens.
I reviewed the legal history of this provision, the legal guarantee designed to erase the horrible legacy of slavery that had been embodied in the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision. It was a desire to correct that decision that led to the inclusion of this definition of citizenship in the 14th Amendment.
I also rebutted, during that speech, too, common misconceptions: first, that children born in the United States to parents from other countries are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States-- that has been ruled false by the Supreme Court since the late 1890s-- and, second, a claim often made by the President-elect that the United States is unique in the world in guaranteeing citizenship to all who are born within this country. Indeed, as I will discuss in a few minutes, the United States did, in fact, lead the way in guaranteeing birthright citizenship in the 1860s, but in doing so, it has led to a global movement that many other countries have decided to embrace.
I believe the constitutional basis for birthright citizenship is clear, and those challenging the notion are mounting an argument with no legal basis. But, today, I want to move beyond the legal history and talk about the good that birthright citizenship brings to our Nation.
Children born in America to immigrant parents from all corners of the world and from all social conditions have been an enormous benefit to our country and, indeed, to my Commonwealth of Virginia. More than 47 million people living in the United States were born in another country, and another 16 million American children were born here to immigrant parents. Currently, more than 25 percent of all American children live in a household where at least one of their parents is an immigrant.
How has immigration affected American society? Let's use one example--crime. The statistics are compelling and longstanding that immigration does not increase crime. Instead, the evidence is strong that crime has decreased as immigration has increased. In 1980, immigrants made up 6.2 percent of the American population--45 years ago. By 2022, the percentage had more than doubled, with immigrants now making up nearly 14 percent of the American population.
What happened to crime during that period as the percentage of immigrants in the United States doubled? During this time, the crime rate in this country--as measured by crimes committed per 100,000 people--had fallen by 60 percent. So, again, as the portion of our population that is immigrant has more than doubled, the crime rate in our country has fallen by more than 60 percent.
A recent study conducted by scholars at Northwestern University pulled crime data from the United States going back 150 years, and during that 150-year period, they were able to reach a uniform conclusion that immigrants during this 150-year period have always been incarcerated at lower rates than native-born Americans.
Another recent study commissioned by the National Institute of Justice, within the DOJ, looked at all crimes committed in Texas from 2012 to 2018 and found that undocumented immigrants--the earlier statistics I have been giving are about immigrants generally, but this study in Texas found that undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half of the rate of native-born U.S. citizens for violent crimes and drug crimes and at less than a quarter of the rate of native-born citizens for property crimes.
Immigration is a plus for the American economy. Immigrant households generated more than $236 billion in income in 2022 and paid nearly $66 billion in local, State, and Federal taxes. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that immigration flows to the United States that are projected would likely increase the American gross domestic product by nearly $9 trillion between now and 2034.
And I know, because of the background of the President, this next statistic will not surprise you: More than 45 percent of Fortune 500 companies in America were started by immigrants or by the children of immigrants. This is not just a relic of the past; it sticks to today. In 2023, 17 percent of new businesses that were started in America during that year were started by immigrants, and another 17 percent were started by the children of immigrants. Fully, 34 percent of new businesses in 2023 were started by immigrants or by the children of immigrants.
So it is clear to me--the great-grandson of seven Irish immigrants and a Scottish immigrant whose dad was Scottish and mother was Irish-- that, throughout our history, immigrants have tremendously benefited this Nation, and that is not something that is suddenly turning from a positive to a negative.
In Virginia, for example, when I was born, in 1958, about 1 out of 100 Virginians had been born in another country. Today, it is more like 1 out of 8, and that has coincided during my lifetime with Virginia moving from bottom quarter per capita income among American States to top quarter, and that movement has been significantly advanced by talented people from around the world deciding that they wanted to make Virginia their home.
Enough of the statistics. How about some stories? Children of immigrants have made powerful contributions to the very essence of America.
Where would American fashion be without people like Ralph Lauren, who just got a Presidential medal--born Ralph Lifshitz, in the Bronx, to parents who had emigrated from Poland?
Where would American politics be without people like Kamala Harris, born in California to parents who had emigrated from Jamaica and India; or Marco Rubio, born in Florida to parents who had emigrated from Cuba; or Nikki Haley, born in South Carolina to parents who had emigrated from the Punjab region of India; or General and former Secretary of State Colin Powell, born in New York to parents who had emigrated from Jamaica?
Where would American sports be without people like figure skater Michelle Kwan, born in California to parents who had emigrated from Hong Kong; or baseball legend Alex Rodriguez, born in Manhattan to parents who had emigrated from the Dominican Republic?
Where would American acting be without people like Renee Zellweger, born in Texas to parents who had emigrated from Switzerland and Norway; or Bruce Lee, born in California to parents who had emigrated from Hong Kong and Shanghai?
Where would American business be without people like ketchup magnate Henry Heinz, born in Pittsburgh to parents who had emigrated from Germany; or outdoor gear entrepreneur Eddie Bauer, born in Washington State to parents who had emigrated from Russia; or cosmetics titan Estee Lauder, born in Queens to parents who had emigrated from Hungary and Slovakia; or entertainment executive David Geffen, born in Brooklyn to parents who had emigrated from Mandatory Palestine?
Where would American music be without people like Frank Sinatra, born in New York to Italian immigrants; or George Gershwin, the child of Russian immigrants?
All of these Americans were born here to immigrant parents, some of whose immigration status was unclear at the time of their births and some of whose parents were clearly undocumented. And that is the point of birthright citizenship. When America is at its best, the status of our parents doesn't limit our ability to contribute to our community, and that is part of the genius of our Nation.
I believe birthright citizenship--put into our Constitution in the 1860s to rectify the sin of slavery and the egregious Dred Scott decision--has really been a blessing to our country, and it has actually inspired a global movement, especially among nations in the Americas, to guarantee citizenship to all born within their borders.
There are slightly more than three dozen nations in the world that guarantee birthright citizenship, predominantly in the Americas. And why did it catch hold in the Americas? We called ourselves the New World. That was a phrase we often kind of used for the United States and the Americas to contrast it with an old world--mostly nations in Europe--that tended to lock you in a social status based on who your parents were. That was a reality that was pretty common when the English arrived in Jamestown in 1607 or at Plymouth Rock in 1619.
As Europeans and others were coming to the United States before we declared our independence in 1776, it was fairly common for people to be locked into the status to which they were born, and that is why so many of our ancestors wanted to come to the United States--because they would not be locked into a social status based upon their parents' social status or have to look into a future where their own kids and grandkids and great-grandkids would be locked into a status. So the United States, in the 14th Amendment, decided to embrace a definitively new-world concept that, if you are born in this country, you are a U.S. citizen. It doesn't matter who your parents are, and you have the same opportunities and responsibilities as anyone born in this country. It is part of the genius of this country.
I could tell thousands of stories like the ones that I have shared. I plan to speak more on this topic in the months to come because I am going to vigorously defend the constitutional principle of American birthright citizenship against any who would try to dilute it or tear it down.
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