The Washington Post takes a well-deserved swipe at Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo Sunday. Tancredo is proposing that citizenship be denied to U.S.
born children of undocumented residents. Apparently he has never read the U.S. Constitution.

The 14th Amendment begins: “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.” Not “all persons except children of illegal immigrants,” not “all persons except those Congress exempts in moments of nativism.” All persons.

Tancredo’s off-the-wall theory is that these children are similar to diplomats in that they are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction. The Post reminds him:

The Supreme Court rejected this thesis more than a century ago. “Every citizen or subject of another country, while domiciled here, is within the allegiance and the protection, and consequently subject to the jurisdiction, of the United States,” the court wrote. Diplomats, as a consequence of the lack of jurisdiction Mr. Tancredo would extend to aliens, cannot be arrested or charged with crimes. Is that what Mr. Tancredo has in mind for illegal immigrants? Members of Congress ought not follow him on this ugly and fruitless path.