495. BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP: ORIGINS, HISTORY, AND DEBATE

Willie Hiatt

Soon after his second swearing-in ceremony in January 2025, President Trump signed an executive order targeting birthright citizenship, which was enshrined by the Reconstruction-Era Fourteenth Amendment (1868). The order asserted that the “privilege of United States citizenship is a priceless and profound gift” but one that no longer would be bestowed on children of undocumented immigrants born on U.S. soil. Most of the 30 countries offering jus soli (“right of soil”) are in the Americas, including Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, and Chile. As the first of two stand-alone talks on racial history, this lecture explores contemporary challenges to this fundamental citizenship law within a longer history and debate about its meaning and merits.

10:00-12 noon                                                                                                           1 Session

Wednesday, September 17                                                                                        Fee:  $30

ABOUT THE LECTURER

Willie Hiatt, a Kentucky native, is an Associate Professor of History at Long Island University, Post Campus. He’s the author of The Rarified Air of the Modern: Airplanes and Technological Modernity in the Andes (Oxford, 2016). His current research is an oral history project examining how Maoist insurgents in Peru targeted high-tension towers during the Shining Path movement (1980-92).