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Article snippet: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States… are citizens of the United States…” 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution There are many Americans that do not believe in the Constitution of the United States and the 14th Amendment particularly draws their disdain. For more than a century-and-a-half these people have convinced congress to withhold or cancel citizenship or to deport people for little reason. Anti-immigrant people have been with us since the beginning. Founding Father Benjamin Franklin lamented immigrants from Germany for not learning English and for their Roman Catholicism. The anti-immigrant fervor spiked when Irish Catholics flowed into the United States in the 1840s and took form in the Know-Nothing political party that swept much of the country electing governors and congressmen. The political effects of the Know-Nothing movement: The original 1790 citizenship law that allowed “free and white” people to become citizens was set aside by the post-Civil War Naturalization Act of 1870. It restricted citizenship specifically to “Caucasians and Africans.” Then came the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the “Gentlemen’s Agreement” President Teddy Roosevelt forced on Japan to end Japanese immigration. Infamous Supreme Court decisions followed with which the Court perpetuated racism by law. In the case of Singh, a man from from India, he became a citizen claiming he was “white” on his application; his citizenship was revoked under t... Link to the full article to read more