It’s no secret ’round the PJ Media water cooler that I have a massive brain-crush on Stephen Miller, who’s currently serving as Trump’s deputy chief of staff. I love to see a man stand up straight, look the lefties right in the eye, and explain the truth to them, in searing clarity and with barely suppressed condescension that is richly deserved in the face of their ignorance on whatever matter is at hand.
For example, he did this just last week when he schooled the woke media on the matter of Saint Kilmar of Maryland. You only need to watch the first 20 seconds of this clip to see what I mean (but if you are lingering over your coffee, there are ten more minutes of intellectual spanking to savor and enjoy).
I am SO GLAD the Trump administration decided to completely UNLEASH Stephen Miller on the media.
He regularly displays a masterclass in debunking their lies.
“Guys – do you know the difference between a deportation order and a withholding order? Do you know the difference? Any… pic.twitter.com/sDmzpLtiyu
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 14, 2025
Right now, there is an existentially important issue in play — President Trump’s executive order, “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.” The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether Trump can proceed with enforcing this revolutionary policy:
Under the order, United States citizenship would not automatically extend to persons born in the United States: “when that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth, or (2) when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States at the time of said person’s birth was lawful but temporary (such as, but not limited to, visiting the United States under the auspices of the Visa Waiver Program or visiting on a student, work, or tourist visa) and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth.”
On Monday, Miller went on Carl Higbie’s NewsMax show and took apart the left’s pathetic argument that any foreign national who produces a newborn on terra Americana is somehow the parent of a U.S. citizen and entitled to a free ride for the rest of her life — along with her entire family back in whatever benighted country she belongs to.
“Birthright citizenship” is the biggest, costliest scam in financial history. An illegal alien can come here nine months pregnant or on a tourist visa —nine months pregnant — have a baby, that baby is then declared an automatic citizen, which then entitles the entire family to come here and live here and every one of them get welfare. [Crosstalk] Yes, they can get unlimited welfare, applying as the custodian of this citizen — so called — child — the biggest financial rip-off of Americans in history, not to mention the fact that it’s the number one magnet for illegal immigration and invasion.
Miller also noted the national security aspect of the current system:
And that is used by foreign governments to conduct espionage against the United States. Because now, see, we can keep out a foreign spy who has a visa, who’s trying to get permission to board an airplane, but what happens when a foreign government uses this ridiculous birthright scam in order to create automatic citizens who then grow up as assets of a foreign government? So it’s a major national security threat.
Anecdotally, a California friend related to me that Chinese nationals love to pop into her state to give birth in American hospitals, then claim poverty and stick U.S. citizens with $50,000 tabs per birth as they fly home with their birthright babies.
Miller went on to issue a concise history lesson on the origins of the 14th Amendment:
The 14th Amendment — the provisions in question — were ratified for the children of freed slaves. You can go read the minutes of the debate. They were talking about the children of freed slaves after the Civil War.
He’s not wrong; contemporaneous notes from debate over the amendment during the 39th session of Congress back him up. In one example, in June of 1866, during debate about the new amendment on the House floor, Rep. Shelby M. Cullom (R-Ill.) argued:
Slavery, sir, was the cause of the rebellion; slavery has been the great disturber of the peace and harmony of our people from the beginning; slavery was a great moral and political evil: the moral sense of the people was it: the spirit of the Government was against it: the spirit of the age was against it: the civilization of all Christendom was against it; it has now passed away and may not the American people well rejoice? Nations, like men, cannot long prosper and cherish evil must deal justly if they would long succeed.
But, sir, the people who were once slaves are now free. It has become the duty of the Government to give them civil rights, to throw around them protection, to shield them, dependent as they are, just emerged from the prison of bondage, from the impositions of wicked men. This has in a measure been done. We have proposed amendments to the Constitution, which are as follows:
Here, Cullom goes on to state the text of the 14th Amendment that is now under scrutiny: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the States wherein they reside.
Previous analysis of this subject: DeSantis and Trump Both Vow to End Birthright Citizenship. Can They Do That?
“The idea that this was meant to provide illegal alien children with automatic citizenship,” Miller derides, laughing at the absurdity. “Do you really think that in the 19th century, three quarters of states all got together to pass an amendment to say that people that Congress has forbidden from entering here can have automatic children citizens? I mean, the idea is so far beyond even the outer limits of imagination. No human being who suggested it should be taken seriously.”
I can’t wait for the Supremes to decide this case.
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