Let us first establish that Congress represents all the citizens of this country (all factions and political parties) and establishes all federal law of the land within our borders. ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) was created by Congress to enforce the federal law they created respecting this country’s borders. Fighting against it is the same as fighting Congress, the U. S. Constitution and the U.S. armed forces. Anyone doing so proves themselves treasonist and an enemy to us all. This has always been the case and understanding until now. Any battle against ICE is to be waged only in the legislative branch and not on the streets of America.
Delaney Hall, an immigration holding center outside Newark, New Jersey where demonstrators gathered May 30, 2026 arguing that the facility is really a concentration camp and those inside kidnapped or abducted. They omitted two important details. If they had not broken our laws by crossing the border they would not be in this place. Or, once in, and realizing that those on this side considered it an invasion, taken advantage of Trump’s generously funded self deportation plan. Americans overwhelmingly support deportation.
The enemies of this country and the U. S. Constitution have been in play for well over 100 years under generic names: Internationalists, Globalists, the Establishment, and now the Deep State. Their major goal during the Biden years was to bring in millions of unvetted illegal immigrants and team up with them to destroy America. The laws of entree into this country are enforced by ICE thus they seek to destroy ICE and the Republic it preserves. This conglomerate, collectively called the Deep State, funds and assists virtually every Anti-American cause.
This facet’s most recent activity to destroy ICE was May 30, 2026 outside Delaney Hall, an immigration holding center outside Newark, New Jersey, thus we will call it the Delaney Hall Riot. They admit to being a “collection of anti-Israel, Marxist and Democratic organizations.” This riot was planned for up to a year in advance. They comprise at least 100 organizations and are heavily financed to the tune of $825 million in combined annual revenue. Within the 100 organizations are “big names like the ACLU, Indivisible and Democratic Socialists of America. Their document calling all socialists to assemble was the “Delaney Hall Creator Brief.” In mere minutes, “the call to action spread through secret groups on Signal, an encrypted messaging platform, activating hundreds of anti-ICE activists… collaborating on transportation, logistics and supplies, like goggles, protections against pepper spray, respirators and protective knee pads.”
Word choices are an important part of the propaganda war. “The strategy document directs content creators to call the detention center a ‘concentration camp’ and detainees ‘captives’ who were ‘kidnapped/abducted/taken.’” These “tactics mirror the system deployed in Minneapolis earlier this year to protest ICE actions, and military experts say the operations resemble the tactics of an insurgency” (“Secret Signal chats reveal how anti-ICE agitators coordinated Newark riots,” by Asra Q. Nomani, Michael Dorgan, Preston Mizell, FOX News, June 4, 2026). Indeed it does because THIS IS AN INSURGENCY. “They act like military battalions…Fox News Digital observed tents stocked with respirators, goggles, protective pads, decontamination supplies and other protest-support equipment.”
Fox News pointed out a fatal weakness, an Achilles' heal, to them if only the House will act upon it. “About 70 of the groups have received special designations as charities by the IRS, have status as regular 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) nonprofits, as well as labor union 501(c)(5) and 501(c)(6) nonprofits, enjoying tax-deductible donations and certain tax-free benefits.” These seventy organizations presently are “under congressional investigation for alleged abuse of those designations.” Ending their inappropriate tax exemption status is critical to saving America.
The lies about Delaney Hall being a concentration camp, they being kidnapped, and being horribly mistreated were debunked rather quickly when “the state of New Jersey's health inspectors went to Delaney Hall and didn't find a single violation. They concluded, ‘No lawbreakers in the history of human civilization have been better treated.’” (Fox News, X22 Reports, hereafter not cited, Ep. 3920b, June 4, 2026, 7:10).
Let us acknowledge our recent deportation history—all living presidents deported. Bill Clinton deported 2 million with no riots or objections from his political party. George W. Bush deported 2 million with no riots or objections. Obama deported 5 million with no riots or objections. Trump’s first term he deported 2 million with no riots. Biden deported 4 million with no riots or objections from his party. Trump’s second term, as of June 1, 2026, deported 900k with numerous riots, protests, even deaths and universal objection from RINO’s and Democrats, 2 million self deported. Its all manufactured to stop Trump (Ep. 3917b, June 1, 2026, 16:57).
We live in a day when both the Departments of Justice of Biden and Trump have ruled the other domestic terrorists. Americans who block ICE or immigration enforcement usually also have extreme views in favor of mass migration and open borders. If they are physically ready to block ICE they are likely also to support overthrowing the U.S. Government—three of the 8 definitions of Domestic Terrorist.
Trump’s most recent Executive Order “Restoring Integrity to America’s Financial System” should discourage our banks and financial systems from being used as accomplices to criminal activities. Trump describes it, “I recently signed a powerful new executive order, which will be led by the Treasury Department, to stop banks, credit cards, and financial institutions from being used to facilitate human smuggling, drug trafficking, illegal immigration, and the criminal cartels who orchestrate these activities. Access to our nation’s financial systems must be limited to those who have a legal right to be here, and who are engaged in lawful and legitimate commerce. Bank accounts being used to enable illegal immigration, or to store the welfare received by illegal aliens will be shut down, and funds will ultimately face impoundment and seizure so they can be returned to taxpayers. It is not ludicrous, but profoundly dangerous, that any illegal alien can simply present a blue state drivers license, or Biden border document, and have unrestricted access to the U.S. financial system… My executive order will also allow us to stop billions in leaving our country in all manner of criminal activity. It has been said this measure we are taking is the most effective means of reversing Biden's border invasion.” And indeed it likely will be. Some of us remember some banks shutting down Trump accounts in his first term while supporting Epstein’s illicit millions in blackmail money (Ep. 3919b, June 3, 2026, 21:05).
For illegals who still do not want to return home. Department of State Secretary Marco Rubio has lined up 20 countries willing to take them. They quickly succumb to deportation to their home country when told they would be going to a different foreign country.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. Read his weekly columns @ www.LibertyUnderFire.org Column #876.
Help preserve our Republic while we still can by sharing this column.
America, and the world as well, is at war with very different types of terrorists: Transnational narco-terrorists and gangs, Legacy Islamist terrorists, and Violent Left-wing extremists terrorists. All are transnational, have evil and destructive intents, hate Christians and Jews and would destroy the U.S. Constitution and individual liberty had they power to do so. In America all three terrorists priority groups favor the Democrat Party and hate President Donald Trump because he seeks to destroy them, The common denominator to them all is that the Deep State is embedded in them and is happy to use them, and does, for its controlling purposes.
Presently America, liberty and the Constitution are threatened more than at any time in U.S. history except for the November 3, 2020-through January 6, 2021 presidential election and Electoral College certification. Previously, enemies were identified as nations we were at war with at different times: Vietnam, Korea, USSR, Germany, Japan, Spain and Great Britain. Today enemies are not necessarily countries but enemy groups within nations including from within our own government. For the first time in US history the majority of our most dangerous enemies are domestic terrorists. That is why President Trump assembled the military last Sept. 30, 2025, at Marine Corps Base Quantico, warning them that they could play a role in dealing with enemies from within (Trump Discloses to The U.S. Generals “The Enemy is From Within,” by Harold Pease, Ph. D., LibertyUnderFire.org, October 8, 2025).
The Trump administration has categorized today’s enemies into three terrorists priority groups: narco terrorists and transnational gangs, legacy Islamist organizations, and violent left-wing extremists, including anarchists and Antifa. The third priority is the violent left-wing extremists. The strategy for its removal directs the present government to map their membership, sever international ties, and cripple them operationally before they can carry out attacks. As evidence of the threat the document cites the assassination of Charlie Kirk by a radical whom the strategy describes as espousing extreme transgender ideology (THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES COUNTERTERRORISM STRATEGY 2026).
The recently declassified Kennedy files revealed that the CIA, found to have been most responsible for the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and a shadow government now referred to as the Deep State, would have been in this third group. Over the decades American Deep State cells were established in Cuba, Iran, Ukraine, and Venezuela—in that order. Both are knee deep in all three terrorists and priority groups.
The Biden administration had previously identified white supremacists and anti-government extremists as the domestic terrorism threat. By October 13, 2023, the Biden U.S. Department of Homeland Security put out a meme called Potential Terror Threats adding to the list those in opposition to his COVID measures, those claiming election fraud, those believing Trump can be reinstated, and those honoring 9/11 anniversary and religious holidays. The meme was published by CBS Nightly News. Soon thereafter the Biden FBI and DOJ added Catholics, parents speaking out at school board meetings against CTR indoctrination of their children, and the 55% of Americans who support Trump’s Making America Great Again (MAGA) movement (See, “Biden’s Chilling Pursuit of Conservatives, Arctic Frost,” LibertyUnderFire,” Sept. 23, 2025). Consequently, the majority of Americans were decreed domestic terrorists by their own government. At what point do the majority realize that it (the federal government) not they (the people) was the actual domestic terrorist?
As mentioned last September 30, 2025, Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth summoned hundreds of the nation’s top military officers to Marine Corps Base Quantico. Trumps two principle messages given all the generals and admirals were that the enemy is within this country and the military must remember its oath to protect and defend the Constitution from “all enemies foreign and domestic.” This time domestic. Trump said, “This is going to be a big thing for the people in this room because it's the enemy from within and we have to handle it before it gets out of control. It won't get out of control once you're involved.”
On May 6, 2026, President Trump signed the 2026 United States Counterterrorism strategy (referenced above) setting out the clearest statement yet of his administration's national security priorities. The strategy must address all three priority groups. They interrelate and all must be dealt with simultaneously. The Deep State cells America established within other countries, in their efforts to control the world, must be removed which is what Trump is doing. Trump is treating counterterrorism and counterinsurgency as the same thing, as are we. The insurgency happened when the presidential election of 2020 was rigged. That insurgency is treated as a type of terrorism —they overthrew the Trump government in a Coup d'état. Biden was installed not elected.
Under Biden the majority of Americans were decreed domestic terrorists by their own government. At what point do the majority realize that it (the federal government), not they, (the people) was the actual domestic terrorist?
The 16 page document frames counterterrorism as a core mission centered on protecting Americans from both foreign and domestic threats, “Our nation has not been well served by its Intelligence Community (IC),… has been actively weaponized by its leadership as a political tool…This Administration will continue to prohibit the IC from being used politically against innocent Americans. As real threats were ignored or underplayed, Americans have witnessed the politically motivated killings of Christians and conservatives committed by the violent left-wing.” We will “prioritize the rapid identification and neutralization of violent secular political groups whose ideology is anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist. We will use all the tools constitutionally available to us to map them at home, identify their membership, map their ties to international organizations like Antifa, and use law enforcement tools to cripple them operationally before they can maim or kill the innocent” (Ibid.).
So Trump has setup the counterinsurgency of the people, the military and the executive branch which has exposed the Deep State insurgency of 2020-2021 and is putting everything in place to counter everything yet anticipated as well, which already included the participating trans community, Antifa, illegals, and brainwashed Democrats—the domestic terrorists within our country willing to work alongside the other two terrorists priority groups the narco terrorists and foreign Islamists terrorists to bring down America. Trump has prepared for what is to come defending America from all enemies, foreign and domestic as required in his oath of office.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. Read his weekly columns @ www.LibertyUnderFire.org Column #874.
Help preserve our Republic while we still can by sharing this column.
On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a military invasion of Ukraine. For Russia the number one issue starting the war was the American built and funded biolabs on Ukraine’s border that threatened their country. The Biden administration “denied the existence of US-owned or US-operated ‘chemical or biological laboratories in Ukraine,’ dismissing the claims as Chinese and Russian propaganda in a March 9, 2022, statement, the month after Kremlin forces invaded."
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard just acknowledged the existence of more than 120 biological laboratories located in at least 30 countries abroad that have been funded by US taxpayer dollars for decades. Forty of these were in Ukraine. Biden and his administration’s national security team lied to the American people about the existence of these US-funded and supported biolabs and threatened those who attempted to expose the truth.”
But Biden was caught in his own lie when his own Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, the day before the invasion, panicked and said: “Ukraine has biological research facilities which, in fact, we are now quite concerned Russian troops, Russian forces, may be seeking to gain control of.” Her blurting out what had been classified throughout the Obama years, was spot on and later verified in congressional testimony (“DNI Tulsi Gabbard probes US funding to more than 120 biolabs abroad,”By Josh Christenson, New York Post, May 11, 2026). The Biden administration and their Deep State media went into overdrive and successfully censored this admission. Few dared counter it.
At the time, spring of 2022, LibertyUnderFire.org published what was known about secret American bio weapon labs in Ukraine, built by our own Department of Defense and tax payer funded, in the following columns: “It’s a Matter of Trust: Biden or Putin on Ukraine,” March 4, 2022, “Are U.S. Run Bioweapon Labs in Ukraine as Russia Says?”, March 11, 2022, “Putin is Destroying the New World Order in Ukraine,” March 18, 2022, and “The War Behind the War in Ukraine, April 1, 2022” . At least 13 biolabs were experimenting with gain of function research on lethal pathogens to human beings. We were right then and we remain vindicated today. If Mexico was doing the same thing on our border and one mistake could put a lethal virus in the U.S. we would demand it cease and if Mexico refused we’d also invade to destroy the labs.
Today, as a result of President Trump’s executive order ending federally funded “gain-of-function” research, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard acknowledges the existence of more than 120 biological laboratories located in at least 30 countries abroad that have been funded by US taxpayer dollars for decades. Her team will be identifying more specifically “where these labs are, what pathogens they contain and what ‘research’ is being conducted to end dangerous gain-of-function research that threatens the health and wellbeing of the American people and the world.” She said, “The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the catastrophic global impact research on dangerous pathogens in biolabs can have."
Gabbard continued, “Yet despite these obvious dangers, politicians, so-called bs can hahealth professionals, like Dr. Fauci, and entities within the Biden administration’s national security team lied to the American people about the existence of these US-funded and supported biolabs and threatened those who attempted to expose the truth.” The funding past through a Department of Defense program that ironically “sought to dispose of weapons of mass destruction after the end of the Cold War” but instead may have incentivized new weapons of mass destruction. These clinical trials currently being conducted at the biolabs are now “raising significant, ethical, financial and security concerns,” ODNI officials said (“DNI Tulsi Gabbard probes US funding to more than 120 biolabs abroad).
The top map shows where Russian missile strikes were first made in Ukraine. The bottom map where the U.S. biolabs in Ukraine were located. Notice they were the same places. Russia was initially taking out the biolabs they felt endangered their people.
Last May, “Trump signed an executive action to ban all federal funding for the gain-of-function research in China, Iran or other nations that don’t exercise proper oversight, claiming that SARS-CoV-2 had proved dangerous pathogens “can leak out innocently, stupidly and incompetently, but innocently [can] destroy half the world.” Some dare to include for political purposes.
Two major concerns that arose for the Gabbard team was first they were“unable to determine how many possible enhanced potential pandemic pathogens were being researched in China or other nations — despite more than $1.4 billion being spent on such experiments outside the US between 2014 and 2023.” We should know. A second was harnessing oversight to their grants. “Between 2014 and 2021, US-funded experiments on bat coronaviruses at the now-infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology were also found by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to have violated grant terms by making the viruses 10,000 times more infectious, though officials have denied that the research caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the Spring of 2022 we documented that the Deep State built 13 (shown now to be 40) bio-labs in Ukraine (and over 120 world-wide) to study the most dangerous viruses on the planet. All potentially doing gain of function research, but without any government able to limit their dark experiments. These threaten the whole planet. (It’s a Matter of Trust, Biden or Putin on Ukraine?”, LibertyUnderFire.org). The Defense Department argued then that these labs are to identify threats not create threats. Why then would they seek to hide or destroy the evidence? Don’t we already have such labs in the United States, say Fort Detrick, Maryland, to identify threats? But in the U.S. gain of function research has to be explained and people ask questions. Hence they have outsourced it to Ukraine, China, and 30 countries where it is not illegal.
We argued in 2022 and do so again in 2026, escaping viruses know no national boundaries. If a pathogen has not been seen anywhere on the earth in the last 50 years why not extinguish the last remnant of it from your lab, not study it risking its escape, thus re-emerging killing perhaps millions again? How stupid, or evil, is man? (“Are US-Run Bioweapon Labs in Ukraine as Russia says?,” LibertyUnderFire.org, March 11, 2022). Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has confirmed what was already known but censored by the Deep State Obama/Biden media and government. Thank you Trump and Gabbard for bringing this evil again to light.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. Read his weekly columns @ www.LibertyUnderFire.org Column #873. Help preserve our Republic while we still can by sharing this column.
After the November 2016 defeat of Hillary Clinton and election of Donald Trump, President Obama, the outgoing president with mere days left in office, directed his intel staff to create a fake 2017 Intel Community Assessment on Trump to prevent him from ever taking office. It served as the basis for what was essentially a year long coup against the duly elected president of the United States, subverting the will of the American people and attempting to delegitimize Donald Trump's presidency” (NEW EVIDENCE UNCOVERS OBAMA-DIRECTED CREATION OF FALSE INTELLIGENCE REPORT USED TO LAUNCH YEARS-LONG COUP TO UNDERMINE PRESIDENT TRUMP AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, Press Release, Tusi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, July 23, 2025).
Obama violated all the above conditions and has for nearly a decade. He TOTALLY lacked authority, was not authorized by Trump either term, and clearly undermines the U.S. government’s official foreign policy and diplomatic efforts. It is true no-one has been convicted on the Logan Act but it is also true that no one of higher position has violated it and to the depth, extent, and frequency as Barack Obama. If not enforced now it never will be.
Although Barack Obama left office 9 1/2 years ago and has been a private citizen for almost a decade, he still runs his shadow government as he did through Trump’s first term, Biden’s only term and just last week, 15 months into Trump’s second term, he met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, and a mix of other globalist Deep State figures. “The gala connected to the Global Progress Action Summit (co-hosted by Canada 2020 and the Center for American Progress Action Fund), held mainly on May 9 at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto. This progressive policy gathering included various international figures, but these were mostly cabinet ministers, former leaders, and U.S./European politicians rather than sitting foreign heads of government alongside Obama and Carney (Grok.com). Obama gave the keynote address.
This mostly secret “think tank” event was closed to the public and media. There are no transcripts, photos or public statements, thus few specifics—only that which has leaked out. Citizen Obama could clear his name by publishing his and the addresses of all attending but won’t because the Left won’t insist that he does. Others view the assemblage as the criminal syndicate leader, Obama, meeting with his criminal syndicate.” (X22 Report hereafter not cited Ep. 3901b, May 10, 2026, 22:00).
Critics claimed Obama’s meeting violated the Logan Act, a 1799 U.S. law barring unauthorized negotiations with foreign governments in disputes with the United States. “Former presidents often meet foreign leaders, they say, and that there was no evidence of policy negotiations in this case, a standard courtesy—NOT TEN YEARS LATER—and no casual get-together requires a key note speaker, which Obama was (“Obama’s Toronto visit with PM Carney draws Logan Act backlash” May 9, 2026, MSN). Carney debunked that when he wrote. Obama, "Thank you for joining us in Toronto for important conversations on how we can build a better and more just future—and empower more people to build with us.” (Newsweek, “What Is the Logan Act? MAGA Seethes as Obama Meets Carney in Canada,” by Hollie Silverman, May 9, 2026). Sounds like Biden’s “Build Back Better” 2020 campaign strategy. Certainly highly political.
Saggezza Eterna, platform author, said it best, Obama “is utilizing his status to provide a back-channel for foreign leaders to circumvent the elected will of the American people. The spectacle of a former executive jetting across the border to play statesman reveals the true nature of the globalist insurgency. Barack Obama remains the primary architect of the shadow government [we now call the Deep State ] that views American sovereignty as an obstacle to be managed or dismantled” or betrayed or disregarded by someone whose authority to do so ended almost a decade ago. Today, Barack Obama’s authority is nothing more, nor less, than a bricklayers or plumber.
Obama’s “arrival in Toronto on May 8, represents a direct assault on the current administration’s mandate. While the media paints this as a routine speaking engagement, the strategic reality is far more sinister. Obama is utilizing his status to provide a back-channel for foreign leaders to circumvent the elected will of the American people. This is the behavior of a man who believes his ideological vision grants him immunity from the laws that govern ordinary citizens. We are watching a calculated effort to preserve the neoliberal order by any means necessary, including the betrayal of national interests for the sake of a "more just" globalist hegemony.”
To globalists, “the law of the land is a mere suggestion for the anointed elite of the radical left. Barack Obama’s keynote address at the Canada 2020 Gala is a definitive case study in institutional arrogance. As a private citizen with no official authority, he has inserted himself into the delicate machinery of U.S.-Canada relations. The Logan Act expressly forbids unauthorized citizens from engaging in intercourse with foreign governments to defeat American measures. Obama treats this 1799 statute as a relic intended for his political inferiors. By holding ‘important conversations’ with Prime Minister Mark Carney during active trade disputes, he operates a shadow presidency designed to sabotage the ‘America First’ agenda. He is leveraging his past status to provide political cover for foreign leaders who seek to resist American tariffs and security policies. This is a calculated breach of federal code. He has chosen to act as a freelance diplomat for a progressive vision that the American electorate has firmly rejected.”
Moreover, Saggezza Eterna, concludes, “By headlining this gala, Obama coordinates a multinational resistance against U.S. economic interests. These closed-door sessions represent a deliberate attempt to embolden Carney’s defiance against American trade demands. The ‘just future’ they discuss is a code for a world where American prosperity is subordinated to the whims of international bureaucrats,” [the globalists] ( Saggezza Eterna@FinalTelegraph ). If Trump did send someone to represent him in this secret meeting of globalists in Toronto May 9th, it certainly would not be Obama!!!
Thus far only one U.S. Senator saw what Obama was attempting to do and spoke out, Democrat John Fetterman. “I don't know who he thinks elected him to do that, but it wasn't the people I serve, "said Fetterman, “Honestly, I find it offensive.” Fetterman seemed annoyed also with the Obama weekly visits to the Capitol to keep Democrats in lock step agreement. Fetterman says “Obama has been conducting these visits weekly since he has been in the Senate.“ (Ep. 3901b, May 10, 2026, 24:32). Obama’s shadow government, now 9 1/2 years old, remains very active.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. Read his weekly columns @ www.LibertyUnderFire.org Column #872.
President Donald Trump ignited the birthright citizenship issue by an executive order mandating that we return to the Constitution as written by ending the practice. His EO was titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.” Consequently 22 Democrat state AG’s sued the Trump Administration (PRESIDENTIAL ACTIONS Executive Order, Jan. 20, 2025). Generally Republicans agree with this action and many Democrats do not. A ruling accepting or rejecting this practice is expected by the Supreme Court any day.
All Deep State media quoted only the message they wanted remembered highlighted in yellow, knowingly leaving out the eligibility requirement of six words essential to the amendment “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” Amendments 13, 14, and 15 were created to incorporate the newly freed ex-slaves in the South. None of these amendments had anything to do with immigration or contained even the word yet some Democrats saw this group as a way of supersizing to a permanent single party rule, thus encouraged this serious PERVERSION of the Constitution.
The post Civil War amendments all dealt with what to do with the former slave residents the North had made free against the will of the South; the 11 states once holding them in bondage, and although now free, wanted to keep them as still subservient in citizenship and voting. The 13th Amendment was ratified December 6, 1865, constitutionally ended slavery, the 14th on July 9, 1868) giving their yet unborn citizenship, and the 15th on March 30, 1870 extending the right to vote—together they equalized ex-slaves by law. The amendments must be treated together. None had anything to do with immigration—the word was not mentioned or implied.
Actually, birthright citizenship is prohibited by the 14th Amendment. LibertyUnderFire.org published on Sept. 28, 2010, “Are ‘Anchor’ Babies Constitutional?,” and we have followed with several like columns over the many years. The concept of “anchor” babies refers to those whose parents are illegal immigrants into the United States and while here have a baby. That baby then inherits full citizenship and even the right later, as an adult, to sponsor his/her own illegal parents in their quest for citizenship. How can a child of such a parentage have what his parents clearly do not have? Is this practice constitutional? No, and although miss-practiced widely the last several decades, has never been original intent or practice.
For the casual reader the amendment seems to validate such if we omit the middle highlighted six words : “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” The debate for or against the practice of allowing citizenship for babies of illegal’s born in the U.S. rages on with virtually no expert or otherwise going to the source of the alleged authority—the crafters of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
Senator Jacob Merritt Howard, architect of the 14th Amendment, actually structured the Amendment, (one of two defining the legal status of freed slaves after the Civil War, the other being the 13th which gave them freedom) to prevent that very interpretation. He wrote: “This amendment which I have offered is simply declaratory of what I regard as the law of the land already, that every person born within the limits of the United States, and [already, as were ex-slaves] subject to their jurisdiction, is by virtue of natural law and national law a citizen of the United States. THIS WILL NOT, OF COURSE, INCLUDE PERSONS BORN IN THE UNITED STATES WHO ARE FOREIGNERS, ALIENS [emphasis added], who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the Government of the United States, but will include every other class of persons.” It was he who insisted that the qualifying phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” be inserted into Section I. Those sneaking across our borders in the cover of darkness (under Biden in open daylight) are clearly foreigners and thus specifically excluded from automatic citizenship. Notice the exclusion of babies born of ambassadors while here too.
The early record of Senate deliberations on the 14th Amendment show this to be the view of the Senate. There is no such thing as automatic citizenship from this amendment without serious and unscholarly distortion of it. In fact, Lyman Trumbull, co-author of the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery, addressing the definition of the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” asked, What do we mean by complete jurisdiction thereof? Not owing allegiance to anybody else. That is what it means.” Those crossing our borders illegally have jurisdiction or allegiance elsewhere and thus cannot have automatic citizenship—nor can their babies.
On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order to end birthright citizenship for children of illegal aliens born in the U.S. The text of the order states that it applies only to newborns. It is not retroactive for people who are already U.S. citizens. According to a lawsuit filed by virtually every Democrat state AG in the country, there are about 150,000 children born each year to two parents who are illegal aliens. How can a child of such a parentage have what his parents clearly do not have? Trump wants to return to Amendment 14 which denied this practice.
Citizenship was denied Native Americans until 1924 as they owed allegiance to their Sioux or Apache or Blackfoot, or whatever, Indian nations and thus were not yet “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” of the nation they lived within. Certainly one must cease to be at war or conflict with the conquering country. So just being on U.S. soil, even all their life as were they, did not make them citizens automatically until the “jurisdiction thereof” part of the Amendment was satisfied.
Many of our Mexican friends send portions of their paychecks home to Mexico and plan to return to their native land upon retirement with pensions and/or social security sent to their “first” country from the country they extracted the wealth from—the U.S. Some vote in Mexican elections from here. It is indeed hard to argue that they are not instead subject to the jurisdiction of another land other than the United States—and most admit it. Unfortunately for them the U. S. Constitution specifically denies such citizenship.
Democrat AG’s from 22 states are now taking Trump to court for this “long-standing right.” This is likely to progress to the Supreme Court where it will be defeated if the court holds to original intent as understood and practiced for at least the first hundred years of the amendment’s history. No new amendment is needed to get us back to original intent. Trump’s executive order on this matter is within his authority and enough. Only ignorance, or intent, took us off the Constitution to begin with. It remains the law of the land as written. Only the grossest distortion or intent by those in power and a population grossly ignorant of their founding document could miss this. The president swears by oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” which, in this case, he is doing.
Either the Supreme Court follows the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, or it doesn’t! Justices, if you fail to uphold the Constitution on one of the clearest amendments written, you will lose the confidence of the people that you are fit for your high, Holy and distinguished office.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. Read more of his weekly columns @ www.LibertyUnderFire.org Column #867
Help preserve our Republic while we still can by sharing this column.
A newspaper editor once wrote me of the difficulty in finding a columnist expressing the constitutional viewpoint. I was impressed that he was making his way through the Federalist Papers and considered it a good read. Few today can identify what it is or how it came about. Today the Federalist Papers would be too deep a read for most college students—even many law school students. But it houses the thought processes and debates behind the Constitution, the document that caged the natural tendencies of government more than any governing document in world history. An understanding of the Constitution without this resource is not possible. And because the Constitution is based upon natural law, which does not change, it applies in all generations and in all societies. Likely not one in 20 today can defend the Constitution. from this perspective.
Because the Constitution is based upon natural law, which does not change, it applies to all generations, times, and societies. People immigrating from whatever form of government or environmental condition, benefit under this document. That has always been a major reason they come. Natural law begets freedom environments, which beget incentive environments, which begets creativity, which begets tools that enhance prosperity. Also, few nations of the world did not emulate parts of the Constitution. Likely, not one in 20 today can defend the Constitution. This is even less common from the natural law perspective.
Constitutional principles were once taught at every level of education and stories of the sacrifice of our Founders frequently recited with admiration. Today few schools teach these principles in grade school and fewer still in high school. In college U.S. History and Political Science classes the Constitution is tucked in the back of textbooks as an appendix, hence few actually read it. The history of the Constitution’s origin is housed in a chapter but constitutional principles seemingly have only informational value.
Some colleges or universities have courses on the Constitution for political science majors but almost, without exception, students are not required to actually read it, heavy emphasis is given instead to case law. Hillsdale College, and independent professors may be the only exceptions. The same is true in law school. Original intent is hardly mentioned. Law schools provide our attorneys and our judges, most with too little, on original intent. One rogue Supreme Court decision can effectively destroy large chunks of the Constitution and almost no one notices or cares. Too few understand that the Supreme Court is not the supreme law of the land over the Constitution. The Founders would have never permitted nine justices to destroy foundation principles. Sadly, I never met one having a Ph. D. in U.S. History or Political Science who, to get the degree, actually was required to read the U.S. Constitution in full. Nor have I met a lawyer having to do so. Case law yes, loads of it, but not the Constitution in full or natural law upon which it is based.
My point, if colleges give no emphasis to constitutional study how can we expect the student to do so either? Many years ago U.S. News and World Report reported a study showing that most Americans could not pass the constitutional questionnaire for citizenship, so constitutionally illiterate are we. This document is only of minimal value to journalism or communication majors as well. But these professions serve as information filters in our newspapers, magazines, radio, television news programs, or in social media, even podcasts as well.
The media has divided citizens into two warring camps liberals and conservatives, lumping constitutionalists and libertarians with conservatives and pretends there exists no other viewpoints. Rarely is original intent allowed into the discussion as in The Federalist Papers. Thus a liberal moves further, faster from original intent than a conservative but both still move away although at different speeds until the liberal no longer cares if the grant of power is constitutional or not, which is where we are today. Until then both maintain the constitutionality of their position by the latest perversion, or a combination of perversions, to justify the recent perversion. And each perversion of original intent invites another until after a period of time the ending perversion no longer resembles the original grant of power thus authority is essentially manufactured out of thin air. All maintain they follow the Constitution when neither has. Traditionally both major groups problem-solve primarily by increasing federal power without specific constitutional authority. If the document is properly understood this cannot be done without damaging the fabric of the document. A constitutional provision either CLEARLY grants the “over-reach” or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t we can’t pretend that it does. But the Constitution is the law of the land and all in authority swear by oath to preserve it.
Today the Federalist Papers would be too deep a read for most college students—even many law school students. But it houses the thought processes and debates behind the Constitution, the document that caged the natural tendencies of government more than any governing document in world history. An understanding of the Constitution without this resource is not possible.
Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter violated the Constitution with impunity as did both Bush presidents. The Tea Party movement, primarily constitutionalists, rose up in 2009 as much against George W. Bush, a conservative, as against the incoming president Barack Obama, a liberal. It used to matter if a president did not carefully follow the Constitution. Barack Obama, violated the constitution more than any president preceding him and Joe Biden more than Obama. In fact, there were few things that Biden did that were constitutional. Today both Democrats and Republicans defend their president routinely when he violates it. Donald Trump, not particularly a constitutionals, has followed it more closely than any previous president since Ronald Reagan —37 years ago. He also appointed three largely constitutionalist judges. These made the Court more fundamentalist then decades previous.
Of the two major political parties the Democrats rarely cite the document and seem almost contemptuous of it. In fact, most of what they propose is easily argued to be outside the Constitution. They used to defend major parts of the Bill of Rights but I do not see much of that anymore. Republicans sometimes carry the document on their person but do not hold to it and thus much of what they propose is also outside of the Constitution but they do use the word Constitution more than do Democrats, if that means much. This generation knows that the Constitution was a good thing, probably should be revered, at least historically, but they know little of the principles housed therein and have no idea how to vote to get back to it. Getting back to it is never considered. This they will never get from the media, political party, or currently, it seems, not even the institutions of learning—only private study.
That my new editor would find it difficult to find columnists that express the constitutional viewpoint is easily understood, as is the fact that newer columnists, lacking this understanding, are far more likely to express views in opposition to it. Constitutional illiteracy is almost universal to the point that those qualified to defend the Constitution as designed are becoming extinct. Students are not likely to defend it if they never experienced it being defended. A real danger exists that if too few know or value its principles we will lose it—perhaps we already have. Some say it is no longer relevant for our times. They are so wrong.
Dr. Harold Pease is an expert on the United States Constitution and a syndicated columnist on current events. Read his weekly columns at www.LibertyUnderFire.org Column #863 Help preserve our Republic while we still can by sharing this column.
