Kevin Portteus, Professor of Politics Hillsdale College

U. S. Constitution/Public Policy Positions and Outcomes/Immigration

The Founders rejected feudal obligation and birthright citizenship. Under the Constitution there are citizens but no subjects.

Political obligation is not the result of birth, it is the consequence of the voluntary consent of free individuals. Citizenship is not tied to a place but you must as a rational actor; as a human being with inherent rights, consents or agrees to be governed by a particular regime. 

Equality Principle - All human beings are equal in their natural rights and their natural obligations

Consent Principle - All men are created equal. Consent is required on both sides so it has to be mutual and reciprocal. All parties to the contract must agree both to be part of that society but also to the membership of all the other parties. It can not be one side imposing itself on the other, that is not a relationship of equals.

The Social Contract is an assemblage equal in number to the number of individuals who form the society - James Wilson

1780 Massachusetts Constitution, "The body politic is formed by a voluntary association of individuals; it is a social compact by which the whole people covenant with each citizen and each citizen with the whole people that all shall be governed by certain laws for the common good." https://www.nhinet.org/ma-1780-mob.htm

Each person has to agree to be part of the society but the consent also has to work in the other direction, the rest of the people in that society have to consent to take on the other person as a member of that society. If you don't have that mutual consent it is not a relationship of equals. If you don't have that mutual consent then it opens up the possibility that one party to the contract can simply impose his will on other parties to the contract.

14th Amendment
1st section All persons born or naturalized
Two requirements to become a citizen:
1. A person must be born or naturalized in the United States
2. A citizen is "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" (a citizen owes allegiance to the country and are subject to its laws)

Persons coming to the United States in contravention of our laws and living here in contravention to our laws and then telling the rest of the country "Your law says that I have to do x,y,z, in order to be in this country and I don't care about what your law says and there is nothing you can do about it." At that point you don't have a Relationship of Equals, you have a relationship of superior and subordinate. 

Just as the individual must consent to live within the community, the community must consent to the membership of each individual. There is no natural right to citizenship within a particular community. That is a right accorded by the society itself. Natural rights are rights that exist when there are no civil societies. There can not be a natural right to live in any particular civil society because those rights are not granted or do not exist with regard to a particular society. Membership in a society is a matter of compact or contract among people, not a matter of inherent rights. A society has the right to regulate who is allowed to enter its territory. A nation to the rest of the world is a single entity. Other nations don't see your house, they see the sovereign territory of the United States. 

Character of Citizens
Republican government (self-government) requires a particular kind of citizen, a citizen who can self-govern and one who is mostly good. - Kevin Portteus, Professor of Politics Hillsdale College
Public opinion sets bounds and to every government and is the real sovereign in every free one - James Madison


https://online.hillsdale.edu/courses/public-policy/lessons/immigration