Ciattarelli wants to end the immigration policy that made his family American
Ciattarelli’s grandfather immigrated to the United States in 1908 and didn’t become a citizen for 20 years.
New Jersey governor candidate Jack Ciattarelli opposes birthright citizenship, even though his own ancestors benefited from it.
The 14th Amendment has long been understood to extend citizenship to all children born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parents’ nationality. President Donald Trump, however, issued an executive order challenging that interpretation, claiming the 1868 law only applied to the children of recently freed slaves.
Trump’s order is now before the Supreme Court. If birthright citizenship is eliminated, it will be a dramatic shift in domestic policy that could leave 11 million people born and raised in the United States vulnerable to deportation.
“Do I believe that someone should be able to just cross the border, give birth and have that baby be an American citizen?” Ciattarelli mused at a campaign event last month. “I don’t. That’s not what the intent was of the 14th Amendment.”
But a review of military and census records shows that Ciattarelli’s grandfather, Antonio, fathered at least two children in the United States before becoming a citizen.
Antonio wrote “no” on a World War I draft registration card from 1917 or 1918, asking whether he was a naturalized citizen or an alien. This was typical for Italian-born immigrants who had not yet begun the citizenship process but intended to.
The same card stated that Antonio had two children.
The 1920 census shows that Antonio had applied for citizenship but not yet been naturalized. It also states that he immigrated to the United States in 1908 and that his two children were born in 1914 and 1915, making them documented citizens.
By the time of the 1930 census, Antonio was a naturalized citizen and Ciattarelli’s father, Anthony, had been born. It’s not clear if Anthony was born before or after Antonio was naturalized.
Ciattarelli’s Democratic opponent, Mikie Sherrill, is a consponsor of the Born in the USA Act, which seeks to block Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship.
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