Painted portrait of Wong Kim Ark in the Asian American Community Heroes Mural, located in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

Julie Caine/Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco

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Julie Caine/Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco

Painted portrait of Wong Kim Ark in the Asian American Community Heroes Mural, located in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

Julie Caine/Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco

On the first day of his second term as President, Donald Trump signed an executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. whose parents are in the country illegally. The Trump Administration asserts that the children of noncitizens are not “subject to the jurisdiction of the United States” and therefore are not entitled to citizenship. But birthright citizenship is a Constitutional guarantee, explicitly laid out in the 14th Amendment. On this episode of The Sunday Story, we look at the origins of this right through a 1898 court case that would transform the life of one Chinese immigrant and generations to follow. You can listen to the full episode from NPR’s Throughline here or wherever you listen to podcasts.

This episode was produced by Kim Nederveen Pieterse and edited by Jennifer Schmidt. The engineer was Kwesi Lee.

We’d love to hear from you. Send us an email at TheSundayStory@npr.org.

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