Activism
COMMENTARY: Wong Kim Ark Kept Dred Scott Dead
In 1857, the Supreme Court’s infamous Dred Scott decision declared that Black people — enslaved or free — could never be citizens of the United States.
By Emil Amok Guillermo
Donald Trump tried to deport Wong Kim Ark.
But the President was 128 years too late.
On the final day of its term, days before America marks its 250th anniversary, the Supreme Court reminded us who gets to call themselves an American.
It’s not determined by blood.
It’s determined by birth on American soil.
The Supreme Court rejected Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship by executive order. In doing so, he reaffirmed what the Supreme Court had already settled in 1898 in United States v. Wong Kim Ark.
The Court didn’t invent a constitutional right.
It refused to erase one.
If your mother’s feet were on American soil when you were born, you’re an American citizen.
You can’t defeat the feet.
That’s my story as a Filipino American.
THE HISTORY WE KEEP FORGETTING
America has a habit of forgetting the people who save it.
We remember the Gold Rush.
We forget the Chinese who built the railroads.
We remember César Chávez.
We forget Larry Itliong.
And now, when politicians tried to rewrite the Constitution, they forgot the Chinese American born in San Francisco who had already answered their question more than a century ago.
His name was Wong Kim Ark.
If you’ve never heard of him, don’t feel bad.
Asian Americans have spent generations as America’s footnotes.
Unless we’re nurses.
Then we’re indispensable.
Unless we’re applying to elite colleges.
Then we’re the problem.
Let’s also be fair.
Not everyone who opposes birthright citizenship is motivated by prejudice. Many sincerely argue the Fourteenth Amendment was written only to guarantee citizenship to formerly enslaved Black Americans and not to the children of immigrants.
That’s a constitutional argument.
It just happens to be the one that lost.
In 1898.
And again this week.
DRED SCOTT IS WHY THIS MATTERS
Here’s the history too many Americans skip.
Why was the Fourteenth Amendment written?
In 1857, the Supreme Court’s infamous Dred Scott decision declared that Black people — enslaved or free — could never be citizens of the United States.
Never.
The Civil War ended slavery.
But it took the Fourteenth Amendment to bury Dred Scott.
The Citizenship Clause wasn’t a loophole.
It wasn’t an accident.
That’s the history the Supreme Court relied on.
The Fourteenth Amendment first secured the citizenship of formerly enslaved Black Americans.
Then Wong Kim Ark established that the same constitutional promise belongs to every child born on American soil, regardless of race or ancestry.
Black freedom and Asian American citizenship are joined by the same sentence in the Constitution.
Different communities.
One constitutional promise.
OUR HERO
Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco in 1873.
Not born pending ICE approval.
Born.
His parents were Chinese immigrants legally living in California but barred by racist laws from becoming citizens themselves.
As a Filipino American, this debate isn’t abstract.
My mother was still legally an alien when I was born.
Her immigration status didn’t matter.
Where her feet stood did.
America.
That’s what made me a citizen.
Not ancestry.
Not bloodline.
Not race.
The Constitution.
Emil Guillermo is an award-winning journalist, news analyst, and comic monologist. He appears at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, July 16–26, at Ace Art Gallery. Subscribe to his micro-talk show at YouTube.com/@emilamok1.
