NY Times: In the Birthright Citizenship Hearing, a Story of Asians Fighting for Rights
Amy Qin
It came as no surprise that the discussion of birthright citizenship at the Supreme Court this week focused on the landmark 1898 precedent set by Wong Kim Ark, which ruled that a child born in San Francisco to Chinese parents was a citizen.
But notably peppered throughout the oral arguments on Wednesday were many references to lesser-known cases: Fong Yue Ting. Lau Ow Bew. Yick Wo. Bhagat Singh Thind.
Each of these names refers to an Asian immigrant at the center of a Supreme Court case in the late 19th century or early 20th century.
In the decades before and after the Wong lawsuit, immigrants from China, Japan and India fought an immigration system that tried to keep people like them from entering the United States and from becoming American citizens. Taken together, the cases reflect a body of case law, beyond that of Wong Kim Ark, that has shaped the American immigration system for more than a hundred years.
“The reason why there are so many cases involving Asian immigrants or the children of Asian immigrants,” said Amanda L. Tyler, a constitutional law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, “is because immigration law in this country for a very long time was incredibly unreceptive to Asian immigration and naturalization.”
The web of federal immigration restrictions was so comprehensive that, throughout the first half of the 19th century, there were relatively few Asians in the United States. Starting in 1882, virtually all Chinese people were barred from entering the country, and by the 1930s, that had broadened to cover most people from Asia. Asian immigrants also faced bans on becoming naturalized citizens.
During this era, many Asians turned to their communities for help in challenging these laws, said Gabriel J. Chin, a law professor at the University of California, Davis.
To read the entire article: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/02/us/politics/birthright-citizenship-asian-immigrants.html?unlocked_article_code=1.eVA.QFu7.i4fknyYKy2kW&smid=url-share
Photo credit: Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons