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Introduction
| Anti-Chinese
Laws |
Wong
Kim Ark's Case
| Legal
Issues Today |
Works Consulted
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Legal
Issues Today Wong Kim Ark's success made him a symbolic figure for twentieth-century Asian American activists. San Francisco's Board of Supervisors declared March 28, 1998 "Wong Kim Ark Day" in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Wong's victory. In 1995, Professor Gerald L. Neuman, of Columbia University School of Law, testified before the House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims. He discussed the "subject to the jurisdiction" phrase, using the Wong Kim Ark decision to argue that all people born in the United States are citizens, regardless of their parents' national loyalties.
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1943: The Chinese Exclusion Acts are repealed to allow Chinese people from all classes to immigrate. Chinese people become eligible for naturalization. 1946: Filipinos and people from the Indian Subcontinent also become eligible for naturalization. 1952: McCarren-Walter Immigration Act: Each country may send a given number of immigrants each year. However, people of Asian ancestry are counted against the visas given to people from the country of their ancestry, rather than of their birth. For example, a Chinese Cuban person is counted as Chinese, rather than Cuban. All Asians are eligible for naturalization. 1965:
Immigration
Act of 1965:
The quota system is abolished, and replaced with
a system that gives precedence to family members of US residents, refugees,
or those with special job skills. |
 Section of a cartoon by Steve Benson for the Arizona Republic. August 1993. Reprinted in Barkan, Elliott. And Still They Come: Immigrants and American Society, 1920 to the 1990's. |
 Representative Brian Bilbray Photo taken from his website. |
In 1997, and 1999, United States Representative Brian Bilbray of San Diego proposed bills to deny citizenship at birth to children born in the United States of parents who are not citizens or permanent resident aliens. His arguments in congress hinged on the "subject to the jurisdiction" phrase of the 14th amendment, as applied to illegal aliens. Both bills died in committee. |
All
Persons Born...
combines
web based and physical exhibits. It was produced by the UC
Hastings College of the Law Library,
4th Floor, 200 McAllister Street, San Francisco.
Research and text by Chuck Marcus, Reference Librarian. Research and web design by Beret Aune and Katie Wadell, Library Assistants.